Coke Bears Are Back in Super Bowl XLVI

Coke will announce that its iconic polar bears will star in Super Bowl TV ads and also in a novel social-media campaign during the game.

One of the polar bears rooting for the Patriots, the other for the Giants. An introductory :30 in the first quarter will be followed by one of two different :60s in the second (one of them is posted above), depending on which team is winning.

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, such as touchdowns, turnovers, bad calls and even commercials for other brands. For instance, if a sexy ad airs, an adult bear would cover the eyes of a baby bear.

The bears — programmed with hundreds of reactions — will be “puppeted” by Coke controllers. Coke will also post witty Twitter updates from the bears and encourage viewers to upload photos to be incorporated into the live stream.

“The trick is to be everywhere consumers are,” and that means having a presence on the TV broadcast, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other popular sites, says Pio Schunker, Coke North America head of integrated marketing platforms and content.