Sports fans will not need reminding that this Sunday 5th February 2012 will see the staging of the 46th Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. What you might not know is how social media marketing is influencing the products that will be advertised during the notoriously expensive advertising breaks.

Typical viewers will watch the Super Bowl with friends in front of the TV, but also in the presence of their mobile smartphones (Androids, iPhones, etc) and their laptops and tablets. So advertisers are going to use these new media channels to get their message to us. The Wall Street Journal reported this morning a number of original and innovative Super Bowl marketing gimmicks including:

General Motors has a downloadable app.

GoDaddy has a QR code in their TV advert that you can scan with your mobile phone.

Honda has made a remake of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This is cool. Watch it on Marketing Teacher today!

The cost to advertisers has increased more than 60% over the last decade, and now has a price tag of $3.5 billion. Why? Because it has such a huge reach within the USA as well as around the world with 100 million viewers. Typical adverts can cost more than $1 million. Celebrities include Sir Elton John, Matthew Broderick, and Madonna.

Social media means that viewers can instantly comment about an advert. Advertisers don’t want to get it wrong and so they are busy testing ads using many approaches including focus groups. Hyundai actually changed a character from old to young in their car commercial based upon less than satisfactory feedback after a consumer jury.

Tim Friesner