Category: Digital

Super Bowl XLVI was not only a big hit with broadcast viewers, it also broke records in the social TV space.

Hollywood news site Deadline reports that 111.3 million Americans tuned in to watch the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots. That puts Super Bowl XLVI just ahead of last year’s record breaking broadcast, making the 2012 Super Bowl the most-watched U.S. TV broadcast ever.

Of course, the Super Bowl didn’t just do well in TV ratings. It dominated the social conversations onTwitter, Facebook and social checkin services like GetGlue.

According to social TV analytics firm Bluefin Labs, Super Bowl XLVI was the biggest social TV event on record, surpassing the 2011 MTV VMAs in terms of social media comments.

Bluefin’s data shows that the Super Bowl generated 12.2 million social media comments, up 600% from 2011′s 1.8 million comments. However, we should note that Bluefin’s reporting data in 2011 was not as robust as it is now, which may account for the disparity in numbers.

According to Alex Iskold, founder and CEO of GetGlue, more than 150,000 users checked-in to the Super Bowl on GetGlue, three-times more than any previous event.

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2012 is shaping up to be the year of the social super bowl. Brands with hopes at leveraging the big game to reach consumers have recognized that investing in buzz during the event isn’t enough. To truly capitalize on those millions that they’re about to spend on a commercial spot, they must engage the social web like never before. Brands are buying promoted tweets, linking to articles about their upcoming ads and leaking teaser clips across YouTube and Social media sites. The NFL has launched a Social Media Command Center and Social TV apps are gearing up for the big game Here’s an overview:

1. Coca-Cola has developed a social TV platform, strategy and entertainment spectacle around the Superbowl that involves bringing back the infamous polar bears, strategically embedding content across Facebook, Twitter and second screens and most importantly treating their commercials as a real-time social event.

2. Kia achieved world fame in 2011 with their addictive hamster commercials and their sales jumped 36% in the US. To prepare for the big game they use Twitter’s promoted tweet platform extremely well by showcasing an article USA Today had written about their upcoming commercial. Afterwards they leaked a clip from their commercial to give a sneak peak at the “male fantasy” they’re set to unleash.

3. Acura has played the comedy card recruiting Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno for their commercial about the new Acura NSX. The funniest part of this campaign is the #hashtag they’re using to promote it both in the title of the video and on Twitter. #JerrysNSX already has some good twitter chatter.

4. Chevy has launched a second-screen app called Chevy Game Time (iTunes) that promises to serve up live factoids, tweets and trivia for a chance to win 20 Chevy’s and thousands of other prizes. (Even advertisers are competing for the second screen!) Chevy also ended up running an impressive crowd-sourced campaign to determine what their spot would be. Being true to the age of YouTube, they allowed anyone around the world to compete to create their Superbowl spot.

5. Honda: Adage has already lauded Honda’s Bueller ad has as the first “hit.” The commercial puts Matthew Broderick back in his “day off” while creatively using the car to retell the opening scene of the infamous movie. The ad is already a viral success.

6. The NFL’s Social Media Command Center:
The host committee from Superbowl host Indianapolis has tapped agency Raidious to produce the Superbowl’s first ever social media command center to manage what might turn into another record breaking night of live TV. Mashable reports:
Advanced search tools and analytics will help identify fans in need of help by indexing key words and phrases. For example, a fan won’t need to tweet, “where can I find parking?” to get help; Raidious operatives will be able to pick up on a general phrase such as “parking sucks” to offer assistance.

It seems that this command center is focused on those attending the game itself. If effective this could set a major precedent for live sporting events.

7. NBC free streaming second-screen experience:
In a Superbowl first, NBCSports.com will stream the game online with additional camera angles, in-game highlight, live stats, commercial replays and other goodies. “By adding multiple camera angles, HD-quality video, DVR controls along with social interactivity, our online streaming represents a compelling, second-screen experience that nicely complements NBC’s on-air presentation,” said Rick Cordella, VP, NBC Sports Digital Media. NBC is working with Mass Relevance to bring social content into the online broadcast, which will also include a Twitter Q&A.

8. NFL.com: The NFL has also created its own second-screen experience called NFL Huddle, which blends together social updates from players, hosts and the media. Viewers can simultaneously post to the stream and to Twitter and Facebook.

8. Miso will put SideShows to work during the Super Bowl, partnering with Hyundai for the second-screen experience. Viewers “will receive rich multimedia content during key moments of the game from videos, polls, music and more while engaging with the brand.”

9. SecondScreen Networks, a synchronized ad network for second-screen experiences, will make its Super Bowl debut this year with GoDaddy ads synched with mobile apps from publishers Preplay and TapCast. So as you’re browsing those apps, when the GoDaddy spots appear on TV, they’ll appear inside the apps, as well. SecondScreen says this is the first in a series of shared-experience events for their synchronized ads.

This is just a few of the exciting social TV features planned for this years SuperBowl, look for more from Pepsi Max, Doritos,VW and others and make sure to have your smart device on hand during the game.

97.9 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the latest numbers from comScore’s MobiLens service. The number represents 40% of all mobile subscribers. Google’s Android ranked as the top smartphone operating system with a 47.3% market share, up 2.5% from the market share it held in the previous quarter. Apple’s iOS remained at number two in the 4Q of 2011 with a 29.6% share, up from 27.4% in the 3Q. RIM, which came in third, experienced a drop in market share, from 18.9% in the 3Q of 2011 to 16.0% in the 4Q. Rounding out the top five, Microsoft and Symbian also saw their market shares drop 0.9% and 0.4%, respectively. The MobiLens service also measured mobile content usage in the 4Q of 2011, it found:
47.6% (+5.1% from 3Q) of mobile subscribers used downloaded apps.
47.5% (+4.6%) used a browser on their mobile phones.
35.3% (+3.8%) accessed a social networking site or blog.

In the age of Twitter and Facebook, many Super Bowl viewers will use the commercial breaks to go online and see what people are saying about the game. This year, advertisers want them to tweet about their favorite commercials as well.

Having spent record-breaking sums to secure the most valuable television slots in advertising, global brands from Coca-Cola to Volkwagen are looking to leverage social media to extend the buzz and reach of their ads.

According to executives from Comcast Corp’s NBC television network, which will broadcast the big game, a 30-second commercial slot cost $3.5 million on average this year, up from $3 million for last year’s Super Bowl, which was on News Corp’s Fox station.

“The social media conversation has put more value on a Super Bowl ad, fans will discuss your ads on Twitter and Facebook and then go to YouTube to watch it on demand over and over again,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media.

This year’s Super Bowl will take place in Indianapolis, with the New York Giants and New England Patriots battling it out for the National Football League Championship. An expected 100 million people will watch the game, which is among a dwindling number of TV programs that still draw big live audiences.

NFL games are so valuable to advertisers that the league recently secured hefty pay increases that will bring in about $6 billion a year from Walt Disney Co’s ESPN, broadcast networks and satellite TV provider DirecTV for rights to air games and sell the advertising time.

The average price of Super Bowl ads have risen more than 50 percent in the last 10 years, defying economic downturns and secular industry issues. NBC sold out all 70 spots around this year’s game shortly after Thanksgiving weekend in November and reached a new high with one slot selling for around $4 million.

The game, including lower priced halftime slots, could easily generate over a quarter of a billion dollars in ad sales.

“The overall demand for Super Bowl spots is very high this year,” said Tim Calkins, marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Prices are high. Demand is high. I think that’s a very positive sign for the economy.”

Consumer research forecasts that 60 percent of fans watching the Super Bowl will also be tied into a second screen such as a smartphone or tablet.

SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS SELL

With the conventional wisdom being that consumers are more likely to make a purchase if recommended by a friend or family member, chief marketing officers are keen to insert themselves in a Facebook or Twitter conversation about the products and services they sell.

Bluefin Labs, a start-up company that aggregates and analyzes TV viewer data and comments on Twitter and Facebook, has been hired by several advertising agencies with Super Bowl campaigns to help understand how football fans react to the commercials during the game.

“Advertisers don’t think about the TV campaign alone anymore but as a way to reach eyeballs and then stimulate conversations about their brands,” said Bluefin executive Tom Thai.

While advertisers are eager to experiment with social media during a big-ticket event like the Super Bowl, there are still questions on how they measure its impact with a consistent, industry-accepted method, said Alex Iskold, founder of GetGlue, which lets TV fans share their viewing experiences by ‘checking-in’ in exchange for online rewards.

“Social TV engagement hasn’t been fully priced yet,” Iskold said. “We are collectively working to figure out the value to the advertisers. “It took years for the traditional display ad model to solidify; I don’t think it will take us that long to price social TV.”

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Nielsen has published its December 2011 rankings of the top online video destinations in the U.S. According to the data, 164.3 million unique U.S. viewers streamed over 22 billion videos, spending on average more than 5 hours each watching online video. YouTube was the top video brand once again with 131.4 million unique U.S. viewers. Other notable websites in the top 10 were Yahoo! (third place, with 36.7 million viewers); Facebook (fourth, 23.5 million); Hulu (eighth, 19.3 million) and ESPN Digital Network (ninth, 16.7 million). In terms of total streams, however, the rankings shift a little. While YouTube still is far and away the top destination with over 13 billion videos streamed during December 2011, Hulu came in second with 756.9 million videos streamed. Other notable streaming entities on this list include Netflix (sixth place, 251.8 million videos streamed) and Comcast (eighth, 216.5 million). And finally, when it comes to time spent per viewer, Netflix users in the U.S. spent an average of 10 hours and 7 minutes watching video content on Netflix in December 2011, ranking it first by a seven-hour margin over second-place Hulu.

Social TV analytics start-up Bluefin Labs has raised $12 million of funding led by Time Warner investments. The company’s flagship product, Bluefin Signals, analyzes and organizes social media conversations about what viewers are watching on television in the U.S. It enables clients to use Bluefin’s data about TV shows and commercials in order to inform TV media buying and selling. Bluefin’s client list includes CBS, FOX, Discovery Communications, MediaCom, MTV and more.

For the first time in U.S. history, marketers are projected to spend more on online advertising than on advertising in print magazines and newspapers.

According to a study released Thursday by eMarketer, online advertising is expected to generate $39.5 billion in sales this year — a 23.3% increase from 2011 — compared to a spend of $33.8 billion on print.

That’s impressive growth, especially since 2011 also witnessed a 23% jump in online ad spending, according to eMarketer’s calculations. Online ad revenues should continue to grow over the next half-decade, albeit at a more modest rate. Total online ad investment is projected to hit $62 billion by that time.

The forecast for print is foreboding. Marketers are expected to continue cutting their print advertising budgets for the next half-decade, spending $32.3 billion in 2016, 10% less than what they invested in print ads in 2011.

Spending on TV promises to be largely unaffected by growing online ad budgets, although the gap between the two is set to narrow significantly. U.S. marketers are expected to spend $72 billion in TV advertising in 2016, up 18.6% from 2011.

Overall, it looks to be a healthy year for the ad industry, with total U.S. ad spending forecast to grow by 6.7% to $169.5 billion. eMarketer attributes the bump to investment in campaigns ads and mobile advertising. Total ad spending is set to reach nearly $200 billion by 2016, of which online will account for a third.

Red Bull Media House will be launching a new action sport series on YouTube this month. The company says the shows will chronicle the daily lives of prominent action sports athletes, including urban mountain biker Danny MacAskill, snowboarder Louie Vito, action sports star Travis Pastrana, surfer Jamie O’Brien and pro skateboarder Ryan Sheckler.

Young Hollywood Network officially launched yesterday as part of YouTube’s original programming initiative. The channel’s programming lineup includes five original shows every week, with a new episode airing every day at 1pm ET. Airing on Mondays will be Studio Secrets, a celebrity interview show which premiered with Ewan McGregor as the guest; on Tuesdays, Quiet on the Set, a series that takes viewers behind-the-scenes, premiering with a backstage spotlight on ABC’s The Middle; on Wednesdays, The Power Players, focusing on influential people in Hollywood, starting with Morgan Freeman; on Thursdays, Guest List Only, which gives viewers access to popular locations around Hollywood; and on Fridays, Celebrity Trend Report, which discuses latest trends with celebrities like Taio Cruz and Victoria Justice.