Super Bowl Case Study With the Declining

Super Bowl Case Study

With the declining power and reach of traditional marketing media due to technological developments, growing competition and diversification of media channels, the main issue for the Super Bowl is to tap into the potential of word of mouth and buzz marketing to attract advertisements for its commercial profitability. With the decline in popularity of televised sporting events such as the Winter Olympics 2006, the Super Bowl needs to develop innovative marketing strategies to maintain its relevance in the mind of the consumer and marketer.

The Super Bowl is the most widely watched television event in the United States watched by more than 100 million national viewers and 1 billion worldwide. This provides an attractive opportunity for marketers to advertise their products. Because of the strategic value of advertisements spots during the Super Bowl, the advertisements are produced lavishly and possess entertainment value, so much so that 35% of the viewers of Super Bowl discuss the advertisements with colleagues at work and 4% tune in simply to watch the advertisements. Because of this immense interest, advertising space has become expensive. A 30-second slot typically costs $2.6 million. This may not make economic sense for many marketers. Moreover, with the development of broadband television and live streaming, consumers are now exposed to multiple channels offering greater interactivity and autonomy to engage marketers with consumers. There is a concern that marketers may shift content away from the traditional Super Bowl advertising to these more interactive channels. Newer techniques such as word of mouth marketing and buzz marketing rely on consumer communities to spread awareness and interest about the brand and marketing message. Community members with expertise in the product act as opinion leaders and are able to generate buzz among community members through reviews and opinions about the advertisement or the product (Yang et al. 2012). Thus, Super Bowl needs to maintain its marketing relevance through the use of WOM and buzz marketing.

Key Decision Criteria

The marketing plan should enable greater interaction and discussion between marketers and consumers and among specific consumer segments about the advertisements and the brand.

The marketing plan should motivate the early majority segment to make purchases.

The advertising platform should be compatible with multiple technologies.

Communication format should be compatible with communal norms (Kozinets et al. 2010).

The marketing or advertising format should be shareable and downloadable.

It should result in lower advertising costs for the marketers and have a higher ROI than television advertising.

Analysis of Alternatives

The first alternative for Super Bowl is to continue offering advertising space to marketers but also using its website www.superbowl.com where Super Bowl advertisements can be made available simultaneously to consumers. The advertisements can be run at the same time on both television or only online (which would be more affordable for smaller businesses). In this way, viewers who would not normally watch advertisements on television can watch them online. Super Bowl could also directly benefit from the advertising revenues instead of them going to the television channels. Large businesses would pay extra for having their advertisements retained on the website for longer periods of time. Super Bowl related information could also be placed on the website to attract visitors. One disadvantage of this would be that companies marketing to tech-savvy consumers would be interested in this marketing channel.

The NFL can create an online social networking portal centered on the Super Bowl. This would provide online communities, discussion forums, online voting polls and other opportunities for visitors to interact and discuss their opinions. The user traffic volume would attract marketers to place their advertisements on the portal. Content could be organized according to community group interests. Community members could view the advertisement, upload comments to share with other members, and tag others to the advertisement. They could also post product reviews and ratings. This kind of interpersonal communication would help marketers to reach out to the early majority population who rely on word on mouth and peer reviews to decide on purchasing a product. The marketers could also join the community to gauge the buzz created through the marketing effort (Lamb et al. 2012) and provide feedback on the viewer comments in real time.

In the third alternative, NFL can develop NFL Experience as an interactive marketing tool. The facility attracts a large number of visitors each year. In addition to playing the Super Bowl advertisements on large screens across the NFL Experience, marketers can offer product samples and live demonstrations to build credibility and win the confidence of early majority consumers through interpersonal communication. The appeal of this strategy can be enhanced by having showbiz and sports celebrities participate in these promotional events at NFL Experience. The use of such reference group members as spokespeople would increase consumer commitment to the brand and lend it greater credibility and recall value. A large number of potential consumers can be actively involved in the marketing effort. One disadvantage of this is that not all businesses will be able to afford this alternative.

Recommendations

The NFL should adopt the second alternative and should build an online portal as a social networking platform for Super Bowl advertisement viewers. Consumers nowadays spend a lot of time online because of easy access to the Internet through mobile devices and smart computers. They are also motivated by opportunities to interact with and guide other online users and to be viewed as a source of information and influence. Since the purpose of advertising is to reach a large audience in a short period (Kumar & Sharma, 1998), advertising costs for marketers would be lower as the online medium is accessible to a global audience and the content can be stored for longer.