February 3, 2012

Expensive Marketing For This Year's Super Bowl Doesn't Guarantee Sales — So YouTube Must Be Part Of Your Strategy

By Kenneth Wisnefski, Founder and CEO, WebiMax

With Super Bowl XLVI airing this weekend, advertisers and marketers are firming up their ads that are expected to cost $3.5 - $4 million for a 30-second spot spot on NBC. While "Super Bowl commercials" are amongst the most exciting parts of the experience for the consumer (not avid sports fan), marketers and advertisers should ask themselves if their commercial will effectively generate brand awareness and a purchase decision.

It seems as though Super Bowl commercials have become more of a battle of wit versus creating brand awareness. In recent years, more and more companies compete with each other and focus more on injecting humor into the ad versus focusing on making some sort of conversion. With the Super Bowl being presented online for the first time this year, perhaps advertisers should focus also on creating a viral marketing video that coincides with their super $3.5 million advertisement during the big game.

In order to do this, focus should be directed toward YouTube. Displaying a brief "sneak-peek" and heavily optimizing the video using video search engine optimization (VSEO) can increase brand awareness and give consumers something to specifically look for during commercial breaks. This may sound unfamiliar to reverse the operation, however in doing so, the ad is already in the minds of consumers. Displaying a QR code on the television ad can then generate website traffic and lead to the conversion.

Creating viral marketing videos are inexpensive and online video content is 141 times more likely than a webpage to generate a "click-through" in the search engine results pages. Given that, viral marketing videos can reach a wider audience and have a more immediate effect on generating a conversion. When a company makes a $3.5 million ad this year, it does not mean that millions of watchers are going to flock to the store or online to make a purchase. Instead, coupling a Super Bowl advertisement with an optimized viral marketing video could be this year's most effective method of Super Bowl advertising.

Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax (Mount Laurel, NJ) and an expert in online marketing, discusses this year's Super Bowl advertising and suggests more companies should implement online use prior to the big game.