Vote for Best Use of Social Media In Super Bowl 2007

Great first half, boring second half, but fun time over at Brian Solis’ tonight for the game. The ads were ok, nothing really outstanding, though there were a few gems that got everyone laughing (and a few people cried for the robot who lost his job - or was that a shebot?). Regardless, we are here to determine who had the best use of Social Media in their Super Bowl Advertising. Some tech companies did not throw down the big bucks, but did put up ads on YouTube that were less than funny or entertaining - good thing they did not blow that $2.6MM

I will collect votes through WED morning, Feb 7 @ 9am PST, so cast your vote right now…

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Best Use of Social Media in the Super Bowl Award - 2007

While it may be a long name for an award, this intersection of advertising and Social Media is short on competitors for top honors. As the premiere venue for traditional advertising, it should seem obvious that Super Bowl ads are ripe with opportunities for leveraging Social Media. In that Super Bowl advertising usually includes the best and brightest creative talents and the biggest budgets, I was hoping to see more of a brilliant flash of innovative Social Media strategy. Unfortunately, it seems that the level of risk and potential for backlash from a mishandled effort on the world’s stage was just too much for these advertisers to bear. With $2.6 Million on the line for 30 seconds of airtime, it is somewhat understandable, but it is also a real shame when I think about how much great Social Media could have been produced with all that money!

While I still believe 2007 is the year that Social Media will cross the chasm into the mainstream, it is obviously not happening in February. The earliest of the adventurous travelers are perhaps just now preparing for their journey ahead. Oddly enough, we may not see the massive surge of insightful Social Media usage by large companies come until after the elections, in the time leading into the 2007 holidays. It is strange to think that marketers are going to be learning from politicians in this instance rather than the other way around, but it is a distinct possibility as they are some of the first organizations that are truly being forced to engage through Social Media - participatory democracy here we come…

I hope I am wrong, but my experience as Conference Chair for Content Week over the past few days demonstrates how difficult it will be for many corporate cultures to change from a risk adverse attitude to one that fully embraces authentic engagement built on a model of trust instead of fear. Indeed, the “Attack of the Bloggers” piece from Forbes had a chilling effect on decision makers across the Fortune 2000 and beyond. Thanks Steve.

Then again, this further supports the need for the sort of dialogue that we are hosting with Social Media Club. More specifically, this clearly points to the need for two of our primary missions, training the champions within these organizations and their communications agencies, and more broadly promoting a new level of media literacy across society. As early adopters though, I fear we may all still be focusing our energies on who has the loudest voice, rather than understanding that the ability to hear what people need and respond is more important [thanks to Ryan Troy for pointing this out at our Social Media Cafe]. In sales training they say that you should listen at least 2x as much as you speak. More interestingly, I believe that Superman’s real power came from his super ears - being able to identify people in trouble from far away and swoop in to save the day.

Until this point in time, most corporate Social Media efforts have emanated from digital communications and public relations departments. However, there is more to Social Media than is apparent from the most obvious aspects of user generated content and citizen journalism. While the communications industry is being massively disrupted as individuals wrestle away control of the messaging juggernaut, it is only natural for those entrenched in their gatekeeper roles to resist and defend the status quo. As the Borg says, resistance is futile. Perhaps more poignantly, as my manager Michele Bartram at the US Mint used to say, “the camel’s nose is already in the tent.”

The good news is that the stage for the revolution is clearly being set, and some big brands are getting ready to play. So today, while watching the Super Bowl ads, I ask you to think about the role that Social Media plays and more importantly, think about the role it could have played. As the brightest minds in Social Media, you can help shape the future of advertising and help to make it more than just user generated ad contests and companion blogs. We should all be innovating towards more of a holistic strategy, being made visible through advertising, rather than stopping with the ads and remixes that will be distributed online.

So on to the awards…

Unfortunately, some advertisers keep their ads a secret until they air, so I will be coming back here after the game to post a complete list and open the voting. So far this year, we found three contestants to consider who took the user generated advertising route.

Best Use of Social Media in the Super Bowl Award - 2007

The Entries Thu Far

• Doritos: ‘Crash the Super Bowl contest’ was opened to the public to submit ads with the best one featured on air and the five finalists awarded $10,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami. This is the closest to pure user generated content of the three pre-announced, with the web site for voting open to comments via JumpCut and promoted through Yahoo!.
• The NFL: They ran a “Pitch us your idea for the best Super Bowl Ad ever. Seriously” campaign, with the winner, advertising agency employee Gino Bona from Portsmouth, NH having his commercial shot by award winning director Joe Pytka. The commercial sounds like a good one, with just the right balance between humor and sentiment, but the approach was influenced by the desire to control the positioning via the production value. Then again, I would love the opportunity to work with Joe one day myself, so that is pretty cool.
• Chevy: They held a similar “pitch us” contest that was only open to college students. More importantly, they actually tracked the progress of the contest and engaged with people through their Chevy College Ad Blog in addition to a broadcast tie in with CBS’ Early Show leading up to the announcement of the winner.

Interesting Possibilities

• A man who goes by the alias JP has been seeking sponsorship of his marriage proposal to air during the big game. He originally sought out funding through the Web but in only raising $75,000 online, is turning to traditional big corporate sponsors for help. For some reason, I think this guy will get lucky in more than one way today…
• Both HP and Snickers are running ads that use the ‘go to the Web site to see more’ angle. To say that the Snickers ad I just saw online is less than compelling is more than an understatement. HP at least takes the celebrity tie-in angle with the boys from American Chopper as the featured stars.

I am sure there will be more, so come back on Monday morning to see the whole list and cast your vote!

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