Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl is one of America’s favorite holidays, though it’s not technically a holiday, and most celebrants could not care less who’s playing. That’s partly because the Super Bowl provides us with entertaining ads and ads that spark debates. They are hysterically funny, or sexy, or heartwarming. Super Bowl is a prime time for a lot of companies to air their commercials. Every Super Bowl there is a bidding war in millions of dollars that goes between major corporations for a thirty second spot during Super Bowl season. The main ads that are usually on display are one of the great ads that end up winning the Advertising Awards. 

            The ads remind us of how great this country is, and how much wealth is produced in an environment where humans are free to pursue riches by risking failure. Belching frogs remind us to buy Budweiser. GoDaddy shows us how something as mundane as selling uniform resource locators, or URLs, can be irresistibly sexy. The Super Bowl is that rare TV occasion in which the ads, quite possibly, get more attention than the show they’re paying for.

            Another technique that the companies use are to make banned ads to get peoples attention through viral video posted on video sharing websites like youtube.com. This year, and in recent years past, GoDaddy has produced ads it intends to broadcast and ads the company’s executives must know are too racy to air. Americans are perfectly capable of handling controversial and provocative material, including the most outrageous ads by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and men-on-men dating sites. Let the viewers decide which Super Bowl advertisers to reward and which ones to ignore.

The Dark Knight – Viral Marketing Campaign

The Dark Knight featuring Christian Bale (Batman) and Heath Ledger (Joker) is a Warner Bros. production movie, directed by Christopher Nolan. This was one of the most anticipated movies of 2008.  In May 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral marketing campaign using Joker’s taglines “Why So Serious?” This was the start of an extensive and very interactive viral marketing campaign I have seen till date. There was soon a website set up that would have interactive puzzle and trailers. 

During the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con International, 42 Entertainment launched WhySoSerious.com, sending fans on a scavenger hunt to unlock a teaser trailer and a new photo of the Joker. On October 31, 2007, the film's website morphed into another scavenger hunt with hidden messages, instructing fans to uncover clues at certain locations in major cities throughout the United States, and to take photographs of their discoveries. The clues combined to reveal a new photograph of the Joker and an audio clip of him from the film saying "And tonight, you're gonna break your one rule." Completing the scavenger hunt also led to another website called Rory's Death Kiss (referencing the false working title of Rory's First Kiss), where fans could submit photographs of themselves costumed as the Joker. Those who sent photos were mailed a copy of a fictional newspaper called The Gotham Times, whose electronic version led to the discovery of numerous other websites.

The video below is a small documentary on The Dark Knight marketing campaign and you can see how effective it was. This marketing campaign was successful according to me as it really asked the audiences involvement. Another great thing about such viral campaign is that it even gets the people who are not familiar with Batman or the movie to be interested in it. The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign was certainly a great idea by 42 Entertainment