Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

Get Ready for Some Football, Super Bowl Ads and Pizza

Well it's now almost the start of Super Bowl XLIII Weekend with a little more than 48 hours away from kick-off in Tampa Bay. It's supposed to be a NFL Football game between the division leaders... the Pittsburgh Steelers vs.the Arizona Cardinals. However, this year more than ever I've heard more about the ads that will run during the broadcast of the game then about the teams themselves. In fact, it appears that many of the advertisers have released their ads prior to Sunday so that we can get a "preview" of them. I've already seen the Pedigree ad 4 or 5 times I think. It's cute, but enough already.

Last year I wrote this post right after the Super Bowl which I stated that 64% of the Super Bowl ads promoted their website. So far the previews I've seen I haven't noticed many website mentions which really surprises me. I had predicted last year that that percentage would be much higher and was surprised it wasn't back then. With NBC asking a record $3 million for 30 seconds worth of commercial time you'd think that advertisers would want to drive people online to extend the experience. I guess we'll have to watch and see who's going to get the most for their money.

Besides football and ads, there's also the war of the pizza chains. Papa John's is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an interactive promotion. They've enlisted former Green Bay Packer Desmond Howard to "invite" consumers, via a video posted on YouTube, to register for a chance to win a 25-cent pizza -- if the game's initial kickoff is returned for a touchdown.

Pizza Hut is a pre-game advertiser and is planning to launch it's Tuscani lasagna on Sunday. They claim that if every pizza slice sold on Super Bowl Sunday was laid end to end, the line would stretch halfway across the U.S. About 80% of orders come before halftime, and this year Pizza Hut has ordering available by phone, web, text and on Facebook. Domino's is also introducing their new premium line of pizzas that include Honolulu Hawaiian with Tabasco sauce, Pacific Veggie with spinach and feta, and Buffalo chicken.

I've also read that so far this year blog tags for the words "Super Bowl ads" appear to be at least 20% below last year, according to Nielsen Online's Blogpulse. They also state that mentions have been confined to a peak of less than 0.4% of the more than 92 million blogs tracked this month, compared with more than 0.5% last year. Last year's pre-game ad buzz appeared to be consistently higher in the days leading up to the game than this year's.

Well this year we don't have the added excitement of two major markets with major teams, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. I'm still hoping for a good 'ole football game though. Plus we get a live interview with our new President. So, enjoy Super Bowl Sunday and we'll see who the real winners end of being this year.

The Advertisers of Super Bowl XLIII

This past Sunday was the first one in quite a while that we didn't have any NFL Football which is always a big readjustment for many of us. We now have Super Bowl XLIII to look forward to that is less than a week away to be played in Tampa Bay. But for many of us our season is over, except for you fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals (yes, I did say Cardinals!).

So besides waking up to even more layoff announcements today we still have the largest marketing event of the year to look forward to. Here's a run down of what advertisers we should expect to see this year:

Anheuser-Busch - Even though they are now owned by Belgium company, In Bev, the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light is still expected to run five minutes' worth of advertising during this year's Super Bowl. They've been testing as many as three different ads using their famous Clydesdale horses and are considering one spot apiece for its Bud Light Lime and Budweiser American Ale products. Bud Light is also expected to get plenty of face time, with at least three spots possible. A-B is famous for testing its Super Bowl ads among consumers again and again, so the final lineup is still in question.

Bridgestone - The tire maker will once again sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, which this year features Bruce Springsteen. They're expected to run two 30-second commercials which will contain humor while focusing on showcasing the performance of the company's tires.

CareerBuilder - This website company intends to run two 30-second ads, one in the second quarter and one in the third. This year's ads are will not use the famous monkeys from Super Bowl ads past.

Cars.com will air one 60-second ad in the second quarter which is expected to be "humorous".

Coca-Cola Co.intends to advertise its flagship cola in multiple spots. During last year's Super Bowl, Coke received critical acclaim for their ad that featured balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade slugging it out for a bottle of the fizzy brown liquid.

Recently they announced that they'll use one of their three spots to feature Coke Zero alongside Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. This spot is now in it's final editing stages, however the company wouldn't disclose any details about how the Coke Zero commercial might look.

Under the company's "Open Happiness" campaign, which is led by Wieden + Kennedy, Coca-Cola is pushing a 30-second spot featuring avatars and a 60-second spot that features music performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay - As covered in my previous post, the company will run the winning ad from it's Doritos consumer-generated Crash the Super Bowl ad contest.  Doritos will give the winning entry $1 million if the ad become "the first-ever consumer-created commercial to claim the No. 1 ranking in USA Today's annual Ad Meter."

General Electric, the parent company of NBC, the broadcaster of the 2009 Super Bowl, intends to run one spot in the game.

GoDaddy will again run at least one 30-second ad in the Super Bowl and may have another since we've learned that they were producing two ads, both of which will feature race-car driver Danica Patrick and follow a similar tone of the company's past Super Bowl ads.

Hyundai is expected to run two commercials to help promote the launch of its 2010-model Genesis coupe.

Monster is expected to kick off a campaign highlighting the fact that it has become the official career services sponsor of the NFL. As part of that pact, the company said, it will run an additional 30-second "in-game enhancement" to launch an NFL-themed promotion intended to drive traffic to the site.

The NFL is running a promotion which I wrote about in this post in which players and fans tell personal stories. Clips can be seen online, and fans can vote on the stories.

Pedigree, The Mars dog-food brand, is making its first Super Bowl appearance. Watch their ad here and they will donate a bowl of food to dogs in shelters.

PepsiCo Beverages will run a numbers of commercials and has declined to comment on its Super Bowl advertising. It's worth noting however that Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Gatorade are all getting new packaging and logos which may mean that these brands may bet the spotlight.

I just received this press release tonight that states that on Tuesday Weatherproof® Garment Company will be previewing their 3 second ad that NBC rejected to run during Super Bowl XLIII. During their screening they plan to announce alternative methods to reach Super Bowl consumers. Last Super Bowl they attempted to buy a 3 second ad and committed to outreaching to other smaller advertisers to join forces in order to “time share” an ad for this year’s upcoming Super Bowl. While NBC denied Weatherproof’s “time share” concept, this year's weakening economy and lackluster Super Bowl ad sales beg the question: why decline an innovative solution? We'll see, stay tuned. 

Facebook Helps Connect us to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

I'm back on track again now that the holidays are behind us and I took back my every other Wednesday guest blogging spot on Lipsticking today. I've digressed from writing about the upcoming Super Bowl to instead talk about the historical day we all witnessed yesterday - the inauguration of our 44th president, Barack Obama. So check out my post here that talks about how Facebook helped connect us to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. It clearly shows us the power of social media.

Both they New York TImes and CNN.com were successful in their post election campaigns that they developed with Facebook and they used that experience to make their inauguration-focused campaigns even greater. So please visit my post on Lipsticking to read more.

I promise we'll get back to football with my next post here.

Winner of Samsung and NFL "That's How I See It" Stories To Become a Super Bowl Commercial

As I'm writing this post I'm watching Game 2 of the NFL Playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers are the favorite to win, but so were the Eagles who lost to the Cardinals earlier today. So the Arizona Cardinals are headed to Super Bowl XLIII to play against the winner of this AFC Championship Game.

Super Bowl XLIII will take place two weeks from today on February 1 in Tampa Bay. If the Steelers don't win this game the predictions are that there will be little interest in who actually wins the Super Bowl since the Steelers are the only team left in the running that has a big national fan base. So, we'll soon see.

Besides the ad from Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest that we will see during the Super Bowl which I just wrote about in this post. We will also see another consumer-generated commercial that will air during the Pregame Show on NBC that's a fan's story from Samsung's "The NFL. That's How I See It" promotion.

For eight weekends, Samsung, the Official HDTV of the NFL, and NFL Films toured various NFL markets stopping at Best Buy retail locations and NFL stadiums across the US to capture stories of how fans see the game. Hundreds of fans shared their stories such as a New York Jets fan who had his wife sign a contract before marriage allowing him to catch every home game; a superstitious Washington Redskins fan who can't be bothered during games; a New York Giants fan who won over his future brother-in-law with tickets to a game; and a faithful San Francisco 49ers fan who calls the game following September 11, 2001 the most memorable she's ever seen.

There have been two rounds of voting. The first round of 24 videos was posted on nfl.com/howiseeit from November 20 to December 3. Then the second group of 24 was posted December 4 to December 17. 275,000 votes were cast and the final nine videos that included one wildcard were announced on December 18. Final voting took place up till January 4. The winning story, determined by the number of fan votes and a panel of NFL and Samsung judges, is now being transformed into a commercial to air during the pregame show prior to Super Bowl XLIII.

"Samsung and the NFL developed this campaign to involve the all-important fan. The stories collected truly exemplify the unique passion fans possess for the game of football," said Tim Baxter, VP of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "We are excited to open these stories and look forward to turning the winning story into a commercial for all to see on Super Bowl Sunday."

This Super Ad promotion is part of Samsung's "That's How I See It" campaign which includes four unique commercials showing how fans experience the NFL through their Samsung HDTV and an interactive microsite that contains fan stories, and even purchasing advice from notable celebrities and athletes like NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, Rich Eisen of the NFL Network, legendary rocker Alice Cooper and television personality Regis Philbin.

We now have a score of 16 to 14 with the Steelers over the Ravens in the 4th Quarter. So, I gonna go now and watch the rest of this game. Go Steelers!

Countdown to Super Bowl XLIII - Dorito's Ad Contest Kicks it up a Level

Well the first month of 2009 so far has been all about Obama and football. I've already posted here regarding Obama's inauguration promotion, so now it's that time of year to start our countdown to Super Bowl XLII which is taking place on Feb. 1st in Tampa Bay! So what better interactive promotional campaign to start off this annual media blitz with than Dorito's!

In it's third year of developing a consumer-generated content contest tied-in with the Super Bowl, Doritos is currently in the final phase of it's $1 million Super Bowl ad challenge with consumers voting for one of five finalists eligible to win tickets to the Big Game.

 We're down to five final entries from nearly 2,000 submissions in the third annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. This year again, the winning ad will be aired during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. However, Dorito's has added another layer and will award the winning contestant $1 million if the Dorito's ad takes the #1 spot in the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings that rates the popularity of the TV spots appearing during the game.

Voting is currently taking place online for one of the five ads and will continue just up until Jan. 25. Voters automatically have a chance at winning a pair of ticket to the Super Bowl. 21 pairs will be awarded, one pair per day.

The final five ads have been submitted by the following participants: Joe Herbert of Batesville, IN; Oren Brimer of New York, NY; Eric Heimbold of Venice, CA, Chris Roberts of Burbank, CA, and Michael Goubeaux of Los Angeles. They were chosen by a panel of Doritos judges and will each be awarded $25,000 and a trip to Tampa Bay to view the game from luxury suites.

“They are literally about to give Madison Avenue a run for its money,” Ann Mukherjee, Doritos group vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

While visiting the Web site, those voting in the contest can view all of the 1,961 ads that were submitted during the contest entry period - Oct. 3-Nov. 16, 2008.

Take a look back to learn more about Dorito's previous Crash The Super Bowl Contests here. This is my third year covering this promotion which has become the model for consumer-generated content contests. So, who do you think will be the winner this year?

Campbell Soup Promo Invites You to Vote for Your Favorite Dress and Protect Your Heart

Today I wrote my first 2009 post on Lipsticking and I choose a promotion that seemed the most appropriate to begin the year. It's one that clearly is marketing to women online; it includes fashion and a currently popular woman celebrity; it's for a great cause; and it's from a brand that we all have grown up with.

So please hop on over to Lipsticking here and read about how the Campbell Soup Co. has teamed up with television, film and Broadway star Jane Krakowski of NBC's "30 Rock" and runway designer Nicole Miller in the "AdDress Your Heart" promotion. It's all about raising funds and awareness for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement.

This coming week it'll be time to start the annual countdown to the SuperBowl with posts covering this year's promotions and ads. So please stay tuned!

Essay Contest Rewards Winners with Tickets to Obama's Inaguration

The holidays are now over and we're all trying to get our heads back to work this week. I do want to get back on schedule as well and start blogging again. There are quite a bit of interactive online promotions going on to write about, so I'll start 2009 off with this one.

The biggest story of this month is the upcoming inauguration on Jan. 20 of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States. Not only is he our first African-American president, but he is the symbol of change that this country so desperately needs right now.

Americans are being given the chance to enter an essay contest and win one of 10 pairs of tickets to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration. The contest was originally announced by the Presidential Inaugural Committee in November but the details were just recently shared over the holidays. It includes the chance for 10 winners and their guests to be flown to Washington DC, a two-night stay in area hotel, and admission to the official  ceremony, the inaugural parade, and one of the evening’s multiple official parties.

Entrants can visit the Presidential Inaugural Committee Web site and enter by writing a short essay on what Obama’s inauguration means to them. Those interested need to hurry though. Essays must be submitted by midnight Jan. 8. The PIC will judge the essays then choose and notify the 10 winners.

Although entrants don't have to make a donation to enter the contest, they do ask if supporters will make at least a $5 donation or more toward the inaugural expenses at the same time that they send in their contest essays to win a “Ticket to History.” I entered my submission, so we'll see if I have to pack my bags in a couple of weeks and be one of the 240,000 people seated at the swearing-in ceremony on the Capitol Building’s west side.

“Unlike past inaugurations, this one will not be paid for by Washington lobbyists or corporations,” reads an e-mail sent from David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America. “This Inauguration will be open to as many Americans as possible. We’ll all come together to celebrate the hope and optimism that define this movement for change.”

Whether physically in D.C. on January 20th or somewhere else in the country, we'll all be one in spirit. Now that's something to look forward to.