Feb 03 2009
Advertising the Advertisement
Looking back on the Super Bowl advertising, I picked up on one trend that bears mentioning to all you emailers out there.
Yes, I too noted the bizarre juxtaposition of depression-fueled Cash4Gold going head-to-head against perennial powerhouses like Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch. But more interestingly to me, I also saw some interesting multi-channel promotion with Audi’s email campaigns promoting their in-game advertisement. An advertisement promoting an advertisement? Existential questions aside, it’s a fairly interesting tactic.
Audi sent two mailings in the run-up to the big game, with the first going out on Jan. 22nd and the second on Jan. 27th (10 and 5 days before the game, respectively). While neither mailing gave away the commercial’s big surprise – that Jason Statham, the actor from The Transporter films, reprises a similar role for Audi’s big ad – they did provide some background information for their email subscriber base. In that sense, it’s a pretty cool idea; you give your most hardcore followers some “insider info” that they’ll use to evangelize your brand on their own. Audi even gave their email subscribers web access to the ad a full day before it aired live, and harnessed viral power by allowing users to forward the hidden link to their friends.
In this economy, advertising dollars have been more heavily scrutinized than ever, so it makes sense that marketers are devoting additional, more economical advertising spend to help pump up the impact of their television spots during major events like the Super Bowl.
