Super Bowl: Why The Ad Kickoff Starts Earlier Each Year

Social media has extended Big Game advertising into the regular football season

By one measure, the Super Bowl started last weekend.

If the so-called “Big Game” is something that includes not only a football broadcast but also the outsize advertising that supports it, well, kickoff has already taken place. On Sunday, Jaguar, a freshman sponsor of the event, unveiled an ad during broadcasts of NFL football and on BBC America that gave away some of the big themes of the automaker’s Super Bowl entry.

“You think of the Super Bowl as a big tentpole event, a focusing event, but there’s a lot leading up to it,” said Jeff Curry, brand vice president for Jaguar North America. By running an ad that nods to the company’s Super Bowl commercial, slated to contain references to film and TV villains played by Brits, Jaguar can start a longer conversation with viewers that plays out on Twitter and other social-media venues.

It’s exactly that chatter that is spurring more Super Bowl advertisers to start their campaigns earlier with every passing year. But mid-November?

“With the cost of a Super Bowl ad, you want to be able to make sure you’re getting bang for your buck by building up to the event,” said Mark Evans, managing director and head of social media at MindShare, a media-buying firm that works with Jaguar. “You will probably see more of that.”

The advent of social media has changed the tone of Super Bowl advertising, perhaps irrevocably. Marketers fear consumers stop talking about Super Bowl commercials within 24 to 48 hours of the game’s end. But by running video teasers weeks or even months before game time, they can generate tweets, posts and likes – and perhaps even collect names, email addresses and twitter feeds for future marketing purposes, suggested Evans.

Launching early can be “a gamble,” he acknowledged. What if consumers reject the early ad idea or just find it boring? But, he added, “this is how the audience is coming now.”