Super Bowl ads set online trends, GR executive says
Elizabeth Slowik

Be prepared to witness a watershed Super Bowl on television Sunday — not for the Indianapolis Colts or the New Orleans Saints, but for the advertisers, a Grand Rapids advertising executive said last week.

Bill McKendry, founder and chief creative officer at Hanon McKendry, said social networking is changing television advertising during Super Bowl XLIV.

“The big thing is you don’t want people just to laugh anymore. It’s not just about entertainment from a creative standpoint,” he said. “Now agencies have a new metric: How many online hits did we generate? How much buzz did we generate via social media?”

SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING 71 percent: Adults who intend to watch the game on Sunday. 22 percent: Watch exclusively or predominately for the commercials. 35 percent: More likely to visit Web site after watching Super Bowl ad. 48 percent: At least somewhat likely to discuss ads via social networking. Source: Harris Interactive survey for Hanon McKendry

For the fifth year, Hanon McKendry commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a poll about the Super Bowl and advertising. With the biggest television audience of the year — 98.7 million people last year, according to The Nielsen Co. — the Super Bowl has long drawn big advertisers, big money and big stakes.

The poll, conducted in January, showed growth in the number of people who say the commercials are likely to prompt them to check out Web and social networking sites. McKendry said 35 percent of respondents say the ads make them more likely to visit a Web site, compared to 30 percent in 2009. Almost half, 48 percent, of Super Bowl watchers who use the Internet say they are more likely to chat on social networking sites after watching the ads.

“That’s an astounding number,” McKendry said.

Of the 71 percent of adults who plan to watch on Sunday, 57 percent say they are as interested or more interested in the commercials as the game. Female viewers are 2.5 times more likely to say they’ll watch primarily to see the commercials, the poll showed.

“It’s a great place to create awareness for a new brand and a fantastic place to launch a new product,” McKendry said. “You can’t duplicate the high number of people watching and the high interest in advertising.”

But in the past few years, some big brands, such as Pepsi, Chrysler and General Motors, have shied away, while new Web-based businesses, for example, eTrade.com, and minor brands such as Hyundai have joined the Super Bowl ad fray. Top dollar for time this year is $3.2 million, McKendry said, although big advertisers usually negotiate lower prices.

“Last year and even the year before, we were seeing more and more blue-chip brands move away from Super Bowl. They don’t have anything new to talk about” and don’t need to spend so much to establish a brand, he said.

But eTrade recorded an 86 percent bump in Web visits following last year’s Super Bowl, he said.

“It’s no longer about driving people just to the store,” he said. “Now the Super Bowl is about driving people to your Web site.”

Hanon McKendry is providing a Web site, www.superadbowl.com, where game viewers can register votes for their favorite ads and see how others are voting, after the first quarter of Sunday’s game. The site is live now and accepting comments via Twitter and Facebook.

“It is the Oscars of our business, where you see the most cutting-edge work,” McKendry added. “Advertising as we knew it is a whole new ball game. (The Super Bowl) is setting the trend for what is going to be happening in advertising for the foreseeable future.”