Nationwide Insurance is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to maximizing return on their Super Bowl ad investment. Of all the major advertisers for next week's game, Nationwide is checking off virtually every "prime the buzz" box ahead of time. This includes the following:
- Appealing to influencers and connectors by making the ad available well ahead of the game
- Aggressively promoting the ad on the brand website
- Making the ad easy to search via the brand search engine
- Arming the website with a "send to a friend" links or anything that screams "pass-along"
- Providing "extras" via the brand website related to the ad (similar to DVDs)
- Making all other Nationwide advertising, including the Super Bowl spot, in a dedicated section on the website
- Buying prominent Google advertising against the term "Super Bowl Ads"
- Leaking the actual video to video distribution sites
- Posting teaser versions of the ad on YouTube ahead of time
- Aggressively exploiting the news media's hunger for pre-game ad buzz
Yes, I'd say that amounts to "smart insurance." What's truly remarkable about Nationwide's pre-event buzz building is that it's created an unprecedented level of indexed content on Google in a matter of weeks. Equally remarkable is that the total amount of indexed content on Google nearly matches the total amount of indexed content for all Budweiser ads that have ever appeared on the Super Bowl. Imagine that! The "King of Beers" brand who keep producing the "king of ads" during the Super Bowl have Kevin Federline breathing down their neck (pun intended) on search indexing. Indexing matters because it feeds the latency effect , and it acts like a give that gifts on giving. Remember Terry Tate? More tips here. Also see Nielsen BuzzMetrics data re: Federline impact. (Disclosure: Nationwide is NOT a client for Super Bowl monitoring.)
They're doing everything to extend communications. Once the Super Bowl is over, will the brand promise extend beyond short-term, superficial campaign hype? In other words, is there meat on the bone beyond K-Fed. We're dealing with commodity insurance products, but everything else still matters.
Posted by: maxkalehoff | January 30, 2007 at 08:05 AM
I think the above post is 100% correct. Have we heard anything about them since the Super Bowl??
~Richard
www.texashealthandlife.com
Posted by: tapper | May 30, 2008 at 09:56 AM