Is Social Media Spoiling the Super Bowl Ad Surprise?

Harnessing the power of social media makes perfect business sense. When an advertiser shells out between $3.5 million and $4.5 million for a Super Bowl ad, using social media to get added exposure isn’t just an afterthought. It helps amortize the cost of the commercial by generating millions of dollars in free publicity.

Audi of America, which is making its sixth-consecutive appearance in the event, believes chatter about Super Bowl ads begins to fade between 24 and 48 hours after the game is over, said Loren Angelo, general manager-brand marketing for the automaker. Unveiling the ads in the weeks before kickoff gives an advertiser the abiltity to have “a much longer conversation” with consumers, he said.

“The value is certainly in the anticipation of the Super Bowl,” Mr. Angelo added. “There’s only so much that people are going to talk about at the water cooler on Monday morning.”

The technique threatens to put a favorite Super Bowl ad trick on the shelf to collect dust. For decades, Super Bowl ads hinged on “the reveal” or the delivery of something surprising. While this new era of ads is generating loads of digital and social response, they are also removing a lot of the shock and wonder that were once a big part of the experience. Would Apple’s famous “1984” ad from Super Bowl XVIII have had as much impact if it were shared endlessly online in the weeks leading up to its official TV debut?

Some critics think the old ideas are more sound. “Last year’s Super Bowl really calls the strategy of pre-release into question,” said Charles R. Taylor, a marketing professor at Villanova Business School. With so many companies running visual teasers of their spots, he said, many advertisers lost “the element of surprise” and its absence “may have dampened the effectiveness of some pretty good ads that would have made a splash if not previewed.”