Busy Advertisers - Ingles

Countdown to SB XLV Kickoff:
Friday, February 04 2011

Each year, it seems that the efforts by marketers to gain attention for what they are doing on Super Bowl Sunday start earlier than the year before. It is not unlike how reporters write each year that retailers seem to be starting the Christmas shopping season earlier than the year before.

This year, however, the Super Bowl front-running truly seems more pronounced than usual. Part of that reflects the robust interest among advertisers in buying commercial time before, during and after the game, which reflects the improvement in the economy.

The early start also reflects the significantly increased presence of advertisers in social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The idea goes something like this: If consumers are willing to start visiting Web sites to get previews of and sneak peaks at Super Bowl Sunday campaigns, why not take advantage of that?

Underlining that is an announcement that Visa is to make on Friday morning about a partnership with the National Football League and Twitter to sponsor an official online destination for Twitter content related to Super Bowl XLV.

The content will be found at nfl.com/visa and the goal is to collect and curate Twitter comments about the game, the league (@nfl) and the two teams playing, the Green Bay Packers (@packers) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers).

Visa is calling the effort “Go Inside Super Bowl XLV With Visa.” There will also be a special Twitter feed from Visa (@VisaNFL).

Turning to commercials that Fox will run during the game, GoDaddy.com, which is buying two commercials from Fox, offered a look at one of them on Thursday. The spot will probably appear during the fourth quarter.

The commercial features the longtime GoDaddy endorser, Danica Patrick, who is joined by a new GoDaddy endorser, Jillian Michaels of “The Biggest Loser.”

The commercial, created internally, is in the vein that GoDaddy.com has become known for after sponsoring many Super Bowls: presenting attractive women, the more unclothed the better. The debate each year over that approach is almost as heated as the arguments between red states and blue states.

The other GoDaddy spot in the Super Bowl will promote its new Web site, godaddy.co, by introducing a third spokeswoman. Her identity is being withheld until Feb. 6.

Mars, which struck Super Bowl gold last year with a commercial for Snickers featuring Betty White and Abe Vigoda, unveiled on Thursday the cast for its Snickers spot for the coming Super Bowl. The commercial, by BBDO New York, part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, will feature another pair of comic actors, Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis.

The commercial, to be shown in the third quarter of the game, will be part of the continuing campaign for Snickers that declares, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

In addition to the White/Vigoda spot last year, Snickers also paired Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli for a humorous commercial that made its debut after Super Bowl XLIV.

Turning to the pregame show, the Planters unit of Kraft Foods will introduce another commercial that is part of a new campaign giving the venerable Planters brand spokescharacter, Mr. Peanut, a new look.

The commercial introduces a character named Alejandro, an almond who behaves like a cross between Antonio Banderas in the movie “The Mask of Zorro” and Johnny Depp in the movie “Don Juan DeMarco.”

The commercial promotes the Planters line of flavored almonds, which is to be expanded with additional flavors. The new-look Mr. Peanut appears in the spot, too, along with Mr. Peanut’s new sidekick, Benson.

The Planters spot is created by a New York agency named Being, part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group. (source New York Times)