2011 Super Bowl Marketers Are Going Social

The pinnacle event for traditional, broadcast advertising is going social, according to two of the major advertisers Mercedes Benz and Audi (of America). It's worth taking note as the Superbowl is famed for some pretty big campaigns the eventually go global - we'd have to assume there'll be some great, creative thinking.

It's already appearing a competitive launch pad for new thinking, Mercedes Benz' VP of marketing, Stephen Cannon, is quoted in USA Today saying "We're using the 2011 Super Bowl as our head-long plunge into committing to social media "€¦it's our strategic leap of faith". That last comment is insightful?

Mercedes are also claiming that in the next few years they plan to create cars targeting a much younger demographic, though intends to be much more social-media savvy long before that, Cannon says.

Hmm - surely you create the product first to inspire engagement and conversation?

Of course with 68 marketing slots - the US public can expect brands clamouring for Facebook Likes left, right and centre or at least running strong social media components across their campaigns. But beware! "Most efforts won't be able to stand out amidst the flood of 'Let's Do a Facebook Contest About the Super Bowl' marketing lemmings," says social media guru Jay Baer from Convince and Convert.

Here's what USA Today are reporting the two big car brands are planning:

Mercedes-Benz

• Mercedes plan to launch "The World's First Twitter-Fueled Race," that will award two new cars to the two-person team of social-media wizards that garners for Mercedes-Benz the most tweets, Facebook Likes and "social-media currency" by game day
• Mercedes-Benz USA is already issuing a casting call for social-media users who want to compete in the race

Audi

• Audi will host an Audi Inner Circle social-media contest - it will seek out and reward its 10 "most active" social-media fans before the Super Bowl with trips and other prizes - they'll be looking for social-media posts that are most original and numerous. "We're trying to use social media to glue everything together," say Scott Keough, chief marketing officer at Audi of America

So there's a common theme in terms of monitoring and finding key influencers and rewarding the best via a simple content. Fingers crossed we'll see some top draw creative that is really aligned to the brand's customers during such a bif event, and not just social media campaigns for the sake of it! We'll keep you posted as more emerges. What are your thoughts?