For Super Bowl advertisers, major plays in the big game are moving from the TV screen to the computer screen, proving that internet marketing via social media is an ever-intensifying factor in winning customers and sales for any company that wants to succeed today and into the future. Budweiser, a consistent favorite among Super Bowl advertisers turned to its Facebook fans to give the final green light on its Super Bowl commercial. Via a tab labeled “Game Day Pick,” Fans viewed clips of three potential commercials: One outlining the scenarios in which it’s appropriate to compensate a friend with a beer; another offering various tactics for getting a bartender’s attention; and the third starring the beloved Budweiser Clydesdale horses. It was no surprise either to marketers or longtime beer fans that the Clydesdales rumbled forward, winning by a long shot.

The ploy helped build Budweiser’s Facebook fan base. A Facebook user had to sign up as a fan in order to participate (Facebook forbids advertising of alcoholic beverages to underage users). When the company announced the contest on January 29, it had fewer than 135,000 fans. Today, that number is at nearly 270,100, meaning that Budweiser doubled its Facebook fan base with just one week-long promotion.

Other advertisers incorporated social media factors into their Super Bowl commercials and campaigns as well. In the two weeks prior to Super Bowl, Coca-Cola announced shortly before Super Bowl that Facebook fans would be able to send friends a virtual Coca-Cola, an image of a Coke bottle displayed on their Facebook pages and newsfeed along with a 20-second sneak peek of one of Coca-Cola’s two Super Bowl commercials. The company also donated one dollar to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for each virtual gift sent. Pepsi, a faithful Super Bowl advertiser for the past 23 years, announced earlier this year it would forego a TV commercial altogether. Rather than pony up the average $3 million per 30-second slot, the company announced it would instead launch an online social networking campaign.

Perhaps the biggest benefit social media lends to advertisers is an instant gauge of how well received their commercials were among viewers. Mullen, an advertising agency with offices in Boston, New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Winston-Salem partnered with Twitter to measure Super Bowl commercials’ effectiveness via viewer tweets. More than 98,600 tweeting participants levied their opinions. Combining their comments with ad reviews and other metrics, Mullen declared Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family tops among Super Bowl advertisers.

The face of the advertising and marketing environment is changing rapidly. Consumers demand and expect interactivity, and only those who are fully engaged in the most effective online social media platforms will succeed in the coming years. AppSoft Web Development offers social media services for all clients. We can set up and maintain your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn pages, building your fan and contact base and posting status updates designed to boost interest in your company’s products and services. We also offer blogging services – monthly blogs of 200 words or more written by a professional copywriter and based on your company’s keywords and monthly SEO reports. Tiered pricing levels assure quality social media and blogging services at a price any size business can afford. For more information, call Rachel Kuncicky or Devan Stuart at 904-241-9777.