SMARTER STRATEGIES

Is Pepsi's Super Bowl Snub a Game-Changer?

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 02-04-10 | Comments

It could be, as more companies seek to maximize interactive media campaigns, a leading expert says.

At first glance, the prospect of Pepsi pulling out of the Super Bowl ad game seems to be a shocker. The soft-drink company indicates that it will instead spend $20 million on an interactive marketing campaign that includes major Facebook exposure.

But the development is representational of the need to shift marketing strategies in favor of more interactive, online branding, according to digital media expert Thomas Harpointner. For some corporations, a $3 million spot this Sunday during the Colts-Saints matchup makes sense. For others, the payoff doesn�t justify the cost, Harpointner says.

�The Super Bowl is still probably the only event that allows for you to reach 100 million viewers in one shot,� says Harpointner, CEO of AIS Media, an Atlanta-based e-business/interactive media consultancy. �That�s the good news. But the bad news is that everyone is watching the game for a different reason. Some are at parties and aren�t even paying any attention to what�s happening on the screen. And there�s very little that Pepsi can get out of being there anymore. Everyone who�s watching knows what Pepsi is. You�re not increasing brand awareness.�

Being on Facebook makes more sense for the company, he says, especially since Facebook provides pay-per-click advertising. �Very few people actually click on those ads, so Pepsi can increase its profile among millions and millions of Facebook users and pay very, very little to do so,� Harpointner says.

So does this mean ad sales for the Super Bowl�not to mention other major sporting events, like the Final Four and the Daytona 500�are doomed?

Hardly. There�s simply going to be a turnover with respect to the kind of businesses that pay for this exposure. And they�ll likely take a cue from the GoDaddy.coms and ETrade.coms of the world in doing so by making the most of the ad to promote an interactive, online campaign. Ratings once ruled everything. But now, Harpointner says, it�s just as important to build online buzz with respect to social-network users passing along video clips of the ad and bloggers referencing it.

GoDaddy.com essentially sold sex in the form of Indy racer Danica Patrick, teasing viewers with the prospects of getting an uncensored version of the "real ad" by going to its Website. ETrade put its clever, quick-talking baby on the screen and provided an effective "call to action" for viewers to pull out their mobile devices and sign up for a free trial account.

�Getting a sense of immediate Website traffic impact is a far more effective way to measure the success of a Super Bowl ad,� Harpointner says. �If you sell more bags of potato chips the next day, it�s not entirely clear that this is because of the Super Bowl ad. But if your online traffic doubles or triples within an hour of the ad airing during the game, you know you�ve gotten immediate return on your investment.�