Tag: Super Bowl 2016

Nearly Four Million Viewers Watched The Super Bowl Via Streaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
A record number of viewers watched Sunday’s big game on streaming platforms, according to CBS. The network reports that 3.96 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the match across all streaming services, compared to the over 1.3 million people watched the Super Bowl through NBC’s web stream last year. CBS also reports that those viewers consumed over 402 million total minutes of coverage, watching for more than 101 minutes each on average.

It should come as no surprise that the number of streaming audience continues to grow, as the network and NFL have been making it easier for viewers to streaming the game. This year, for example, CBS made the live stream available on its CBSSports.com website on PCs and tablet, as well as via its CBS Sports app across a variety of mobile and streaming devices, including Roku, Xbox, and the new Apple TV.

What Brands Need To Do
Unlike the previous year, CBS made the decision to bundle the broadcast and streaming ad sales for this year’s Super Bowl, which means the viewers who streamed the big game also saw the same ad spots as the viewers who watched it on TV, further expanding the already humongous reach of Super Bowl spots. As more and more viewers continues to opt for streaming content and time-shifted viewing, it is up to brands and media owners to catch up with the shifting consumer behaviors and make their content more easily accessible.

For more information on how brands can reach their audiences on streaming platforms, check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

For more stories on how brands are leveraging new technologies to reach Super Bowl viewers, check out our coverage on Super Bowl 2016 here.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Echo Gains Uber Integration As Amazon Readies Super Bowl Push

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon took advantage of Uber’s API and integrated the on-demand car service into its smart speaker Echo. After enabling the Uber skill in the Echo app, users will be able to simply request an Uber ride simply by asking Alexa, the AI-powered virtual assistant embedded in Echo. You can also talk with Alexa to find out when your ride will be arriving or to cancel the ride.

Earlier this week, Echo also integrated Domino’s app to give Alexa the ability to order pizzas and track delivery, while adding support for streaming music (and ads for free-tier users) from Spotify. Amazon will be making its Super Bowl debut this Sunday with a celebrity-studded spot for Echo, and adding these useful skills certainly makes for a strong case as the company gets ready to push Echo into mainstream consumer market.

What Brands Need To Do
As Alexa’s list of skills continues to grow, Amazon Echo is becoming an increasingly business-friendly platform for brands to connect with consumers via a conversational interface. For brands, this kind of interface presents new challenges in discovery because they only give out limited options upon requests. Therefore, brands will need to be active in getting on board with those voice-activated devices via deep integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

 

Header image courtesy of Amazon on YouTube

 

Kia Taps IBM’s Watson To Find Social Influencers For Its Super Bowl Campaign

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
It’s not unusual for brands to use social media to amplify their Super Bowl campaigns on the second screen. But automaker Kia is trying a new approach this year by teaming up with IBM’s supercomputer Watson to tap into the latter’s AI cognitive power to help it find the right social influencers. The Korean auto brand worked with social marketing firm Influential to scout for influencers who exhibit the personality traits desired by Kia, such as “openness to change,” “artistic interest” and “achievement-striving.” Kia then selected around a hundred influencers and sent them colorful socks – a prop featured in its Super Bowl ads – to create fun content with.

What Brands Need To Do
By tapping into Watson’s computing power, Kia was able to find social influencers that specifically fit with its brand message. For other brands, this provides a good example in using new technology solutions to optimize the quality of paid UGCs and extend campaign reach on social media.  Moreover, it also points to the importance of having strong social content to support the TV spots as part of a holistic media campaign.

For more stories on how brands are leveraging new technologies to reach Super Bowl viewers, check out our coverage on Super Bowl 2016 here.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

Totino’s To Sponsor Pre-Super Bowl Show On Twitch

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Frozen pizza brand Totino’s is trying a new way to get in on this Sunday’s Super Bowl buzz without blowing millions of ad dollars: they are sponsoring a pre-game show on popular videogame streaming site Twitch. The General Mills-owned brand is sponsoring a three-and-half-hour long game show featuring celebrity gamers, hoping to capture the audience sitting down to watch Twitch before the big game begins.

What Brands Need To Do
As the leading channel for gameplay streaming, Twitch provides brands with a great platform to connect with Millennials. By sponsoring the pre-game show, Totino’s is trying to capitalize on increased Super Bowl Sunday viewership on Twitch, which reportedly sees a 10-15% spike in time spent on game day. In order to reach consumers on those streaming platforms, brands should consider seeking sponsorships with social influencers or planning their own livestream events.

For more information on how brands can reach consumers on ad-free services, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our new Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Digiday

 

Two Brands Go For Twitter’s Million-Dollar Branded Emojis For Super Bowl

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch are among the latest brands to get their own branded emojis on Twitter, just in time for their Super Bowl campaigns this Sunday. Pepsi created an emoji of a Pepsi can surrounded by music notes to accompany the #PepsiHalftime hashtag, whereas Anheuser-Busch created two emojis for Budweiser and Bud Light to liven up their respective Twitter campaigns. Sources say that Twitter reserves these bespoke emojis for its biggest advertisers, asking for a “seven-figure” price for them as a bundle deal in conjunction with its other ad products such as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends, and the newly introduced Promoted Moments.

What Brands Need To Do
Ever since Twitter came out with the first branded emoji for Coca-Cola, we anticipated it would sell more of the new ad unit. Now with the million-dollar asking price, it seems fair to say that Twitter has established branded emojis as a premium ad product. It remains to be seen whether Twitter will expand the availability of such custom emojis in the future, but for now, it has become a costly but flashy sparkle for brands to add atop their Twitter campaigns.

 

Source: AdWeek

Visa Integrates With Super Bowl App For Mobile Payments In Stadium

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Visa announced today that its mobile payment service Visa Checkout will be integrated into the official Super Bowl 50 app to allow attendees at Levi’s Stadium to order and pay for drinks without leaving their seats. As a long-time sponsor of the NFL, Visa has also installed over 700 point-of-sale terminals in the stadium to let fans purchase NFL merchandise by simply tapping their phones.

What Brands Need To Do
Through this Visa Checkout integration, the NFL is bringing a digitally enhanced experience to its games. Together, mobile payments and other mobile and location-based tools can open up new opportunities for event organizers and brand sponsors to effectively connect with the audience via their smartphones during live events.

 

Source: AdAge

Snapchat Teamed Up With The NFL To Sell Ads In Super Bowl Live Story

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has sold out the ad spots in its Live Story for the upcoming Super Bowl, with Marriott, Budweiser, Pepsi, and Amazon on board as sponsors. Video ads from these sponsors will run amid the Super Bowl Live Story, which gains its content from a content partnership that Snapchat inked with the NFL in September. As part of the deal, the ad revenue will be split between the NFL and Snapchat, who missed out on last year’s Super Bowl when it sought a single brand to sponsor its Live Story for $1.77 million.

What Brands Need To Do
Through this NFL deal, Snapchat shows it is getting serious on buffing up its content offerings and turning its vast user base into a monetizable audience. For brands that wish to reach young millennials and centennials, Snapchat is a platform that should be taken into consideration. Besides Live Stories, brands can engage with Snapchat users by posting their own content or purchasing video ads in its Discover channels.

 

Source: Digiday

Facebook Launches Live Sports Hub Just In Time For Super Bowl

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook has started building its own content hub for sports fans in order to compete for second-screen attention during live events. Dubbed Sports Stadium, the new content vertical went live on Wednesday in the Facebook iOS app. It shows live scores, player stats, and play-by-play information alongside relevant user-generated content. Sports fans will be able to see what their friends are saying as well as comments from “certified experts,” such as teams, leagues, and journalists, and voice their own opinions as games progress.

What Brands Need To Do
A huge number of sports watchers already turn to the Facebook app for the second screen experience during games. According to Facebook, over 350 million users talked about the matches during the 2014 World Cup, and about 65 million people posted on Facebook during last year’s Super Bowl. So it makes sense for the social network to create a content hub for sports event in order to congregate the fans and offer brands a channel to reach this interest-based demo.  

 

Source: Re/code

Header image courtesy of Facebook Newsroom

CBS To Bundle Broadcast And Streaming Ad Sales For Super Bowl

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
CBS has confirmed its plan to sell all national ad spots for next year’s Super Bowl as a package deal with its corresponding stream’s ad units during the game. CBS will not allow advertisers to opt out of the latter, which are conventionally sold separately from the broadcast units. As a result, all national ads that plays during the game will be live-streamed as well.

Market Impact
According to NBC, over 1.3 million people watched this year’s Super Bowl via its streaming service, a number that will most likely increase next year as U.S. viewers continue to adopt OTT streaming services, but still pales in comparison to the over 114 million viewers who watched it on TV. Therefore, it is understandable that only 18 of more than 70 Super Bowl advertisers opted to put their commercials in the live-stream this year, and NBC allegedly had some difficulty selling all of its separate streaming inventory, according to an AdAge report.

CBS’s decision may set an important precedent and become common. “We expect bundling of broadcast and streaming ad sales to catch on, at least for the sports events that draw sizeable live audiences that are the most important and attractive for advertisers,” says Brian Hughes, SVP, Audience Analysis Practice Lead at Magna Global. “This approach unifies the viewer experience across platforms, and simplifies both the sales process and the viewership metrics which, for these events, are based on reach, not targeting.”

 

Source: Variety