Coca-Cola today announced that its “iconic polar bears will star in Super Bowl ads and also in a novel social-media campaign during the game,” according to Laura Petrecca of USA TODAY. The computer-animated bears will “appear in a video stream running throughout the game at CokePolarBowl.com, a site hosted within Facebook.” The bears, “appearing to watch the game, will respond in real time to the real game’s action.” Petrecca writes for instance if “a sexy ad airs, an adult bear would cover the eyes of a baby bear.” The characters will be “puppeted” by Coke controllers. The company will “also post witty Twitter updates from the bears and encourage viewers to upload photos to be incorporated into the live stream” (USA TODAY, 1/26).
MONKEY BUSINESS: FORBES' Jacquelyn Smith reported CareerBuilder is “advertising again in this year’s Super Bowl -- and the job site is returning with its chimpanzees.” CareerBuilder's 30-second spot, created by the company's in-house agency, features “the chimps creating chaos for the only human employee in the hypothetical firm while they’re on a business trip that has gone terribly wrong.” CareerBuilder VP/Marketing & Communications Cynthia McIntyre said that the company chose chimpanzees to depict the workplace “because they are the most human-like and best suited to convey humorous experiences commonly found at work.” CareerBuilder first introduced the chimps during their Super Bowl debut in ‘05, and they “appeared again in 2006 before the company switched to other creative concepts.” After a five-year hiatus, the chimps “went back to work at Yeknom Industries (monkey spelled backwards) in their 2011 Super Bowl spot.” The ads have “ranked high in likeability in USA Today’s Ad Meter; Ace Metrix, meanwhile, found they rank low on persuasion” (FORBES.com, 1/24).
MORE SNEAK PEAKS: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Rebecca Ford reported Go Daddy has "leaked" one of their latest Super Bowl ads. NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and musical act The Pussycat Dolls are included in the spot, which stars two men “who are transported to a place that looks a whole lot like heaven.” Patrick, clad in “a sparkling gold leotard, greets the men, and explains that this is GoDaddy's Internet Cloud.” The 30-second commercial “is a change from last year’s GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial, which featured Joan Rivers in short-shorts and a tiny tank top” (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 1/25). Meanwhile, AD AGE’s Ken Wheaton wrote Cars.com “has released the ad it's running during the Super Bowl.” The spot, via DDB, Chicago, shows a man speaking with a car salesman when his “confidence,” a mini version of his head sprouting from his back, begins singing about how much he loves the car. Viewers who use Shazam "to tag the commercial will earn $1 for one of seven children's charities.” A Cars.com spokesperson said that there “will be a prompt to use Shazam in the broadcast version.” There will also be “a media push before the game, including online advertising and advertising in the Shazam app itself” (ADAGE.com, 1/25).
HOLLYWOOD SWINGIN': Relativity Media formally announced that it will promote the upcoming film “Act of Valor” during the Super Bowl. Four 30-second unique "Act of Valor" commercials, featuring exclusive content, will run throughout the program -- two spots that will air during the pregame coverage, one during the fourth quarter of the game broadcast and one during the postgame show (Relativity).
DOT COM BUST? AD AGE’s Peter Daboll wrote it is “time to start wondering which internet company will turn a huge marketing investment into a colossal fail during the big game.” It has become “something of an annual ritual over the last 10 years: an upstart web player throws away a massive marketing investment on an ad that will be forgotten or else remembered for the wrong thing, rather than the desired product, service or idea.” Last year's Groupon Super Bowl "debacle was just the latest installment.” The fact is that there were “zero dot com ads in Ace Metrix' top 10 most effective Super Bowl ads list last year, while 6 of the 10 least effective Super Bowl ads were from internet companies: two from Salesforce.com, one from Homeaway.com, one from Living Social, one from GoDaddy.com, and that aforementioned misfire from Groupon” (ADAGE.com, 1/24).
