Each year, the Super Bowl provides marketers opportunity to study and learn from
the games' advertisers, players, and coordinators. Super Bowl XXXVI was no
exception. Foremost, of course, was The Game's appropriately patriotic theme.
America's mettle and proud heritage were showcased to the world through this
year's red, white, and blue logo; music selection by the performers; and
depictions of historic U.S. icons. The Game further supported U.S. patriotism
through the presence of the armed services, police department, and fire
department at the game as well as interviews with troops in Afghanistan.
Finally, as if by design, the unlikely Patriots won the championship.
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Super Bowl XXXVI provided other lessons as well - lessons applicable to small
budgets as well as large. Because the same marketing basics and strategic rules
apply whether you are marketing online or off, the lessons can be applied to
Internet as well as traditional marketing activities.
On to the lessons one for each Old Glory stripe.
--- Lessons from the Advertisers ---
Lesson
1: Know your target audience.
Both Pepsi and Levi demonstrated this lesson.
Pepsi's commercial recreating several campaigns through the years showed
how the company changed its advertising and image to reflect the teen
target's interests. The commercial also played to the current teen market's
interest in nostalgia.
You may have noticed that Levi
ran the same commercial twice during the game - the first time in English,
the second time in Spanish. This reflects an awareness and appreciation of
target audience demographics.
Lesson
2: Research.
Before airing the Super Bowl commercial, Levi (http://www.us.levi.com/sp02/levi/home/l_home.jsp)
completed a customer preference survey of visitors to the Web site. The
winning spot was aired during The Game.
Lesson
3: Consider launching your campaign around an event. E*Trade
launched a new campaign by firing the monkey and officially announcing a new
image. This new positioning carries through to the E*Trade Web site. You can
also watch the commercial on E*Trades site (https://us.etrade.com/e/t/home).
Lesson
4: Teasers can build interest.
Anonymous mLife commercials in the days before the Super Bowl caused many to
wonder, "Just what is mLife?" Late in the game, AT&T revealed
mLife (http://www.mlife.com/) as the concept of a mobile, wireless life.
Mlife, presumably, is prelude to a series of new AT&T products.
Lesson
5: Research trademarks carefully.
As a result of the mLife campaign, MetLife initiated a lawsuit against
AT&T (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020201/12303_1.html_),
claiming mLife will dilute the MetLife brand. The lesson? Be aware of the
potential for opposition from those with similar names, even if your
products are unrelated. This pertains to domain names as well (http://www.domainhandbook.com/congress.html).
Lesson
6: Sponsorships can help build brands.
Schwab, E*trade, and Miller all helped brand equity by sponsoring portions
of The Game this year. Consider this same tactic on a smaller scale.
Numerous events, ezines, Web sites, and local causes offer sponsorship
opportunities.
Lesson
7: Events are new product opportunities.
Reebok is offering limited edition commemorative sneakers (http://www.businesstoday.com/business/business/shoe01042002.htm).
Super Bowl apparel is abundant. You can apply this same technique by
brainstorming new products related to both online and offline events.
Lesson
8: Be sensitive to changes in sentiment.
This year E*Trade ditched the cute monkey in favor of a more trustworthy
company image. Likely, this is due in part to a change in values and
expectations from the company's customers.
Lesson
9: Strategically place brand logos.
Motorola produced headsets worn by The Game's coaches. You probably already
knew - their logos flashed on the screen in every coach shot. Logos were
predominant on the earpieces and facing outward on the microphones. Take a
cue from Motorola and place your logos where they will be seen.
--- Lessons from the Game ---
The league and teams themselves displayed lessons in marketing related to
strategy, analysis, and implementation. Among them:
Lesson
10: Involve your customers.
The NFL draws interest in both its broadcasts and Web sites by conducting
votes online (http://www.superbowl.com/xxxvi/ce/multi/0,3892,4861138,00.html).
During the game, fans were asked to take various polls online and could vote
for the Super Bowl MVP.
Lesson
11: Promote across media.
The team used multiple media outlets - game broadcasts, SuperBowl.com
(http://www.superbowl.com), and NFL.com (http://www.nfl.com/) - to promote
the gain. Additionally, they synergistically built audience for all three
outlets by cross-promoting each through the other two.
Lesson
12: Take advantage of competitor's weaknesses.
Look for a chink in the competition's armor and use it to your best
advantage. One of the few Ram's weaknesses is a propensity for turnovers.
The overmatched Patriots knew exploiting this weakness was one of the few
chances they had of winning The Game. When the opportunities came, they were
ready.
Lesson
13: Implementation is key.
The underdog Patriots played a strong game. When it was time to execute,
they pulled it off well. The same holds true for marketing programs.
Preparation and planning is meaningless without effective
implementation.
About the Author:
Bobette Kyle, founder
and creator of WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
http://www.websitemarketingplan.com , has over 10 years experience in Corporate Marketing; Brand and Product
Marketing; Field Marketing and Sales; and Management. Through her site and
upcoming book (http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/book_information.htm),
she helps small-budget businesses (both traditional and Web based) include
the Internet in marketing strategies.
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