Companies are willing to spend upwards of5 million dollars on a Super Bowl advertisement because it’s one of the biggest ad engagement opportunities of the year. But what happens if you don’t have that kind of money? Well, The Honda Dealerships of Southern California have developed a different way to prompt Super Bowl viewers to engage with their brand; they are encouraging consumers to continue doing something they do every year–judge commercials and tweet.
These Honda dealerships have preemptively puta dollar amount on every possible cliché Super Bowl advertisements could include. For every dollar that adds up, the dealerships (with the help of their agency, Secret Weapon) will match the amount with a donation to the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Secret Weapon has watched commercials from the last three Super Bowls and noted common trends, assigning each a dollar amount. These trends include babies ($1,000), hipsters ($5,000), famous people ($500) and talking animals ($1,000) among others.Throughout the event, Honda of Southern California will be live tweeting each cliché they spot and supplying updates on the total donation. The total dollar amount will be immediately donated to the Boys & Girls Club.
This isn’t the first time a brand has made waves by using everyone else’s production money to their advantage; both Volvo and Newcastle took similar approaches in 2015. But what do companies stand to gain from campaigns like this?
A heck of a lot of awareness. By using social media in a more meaningful way (beyond the typical hash tags and sporadic posts), brand scan create more impressions than through television alone. A social media campaign for UFC 205 is proof. It generated three times more impressions than last year’s Super Bowl. Poking fun at clichés while including a charitable angle is bound to generate positive press for not only the dealerships, but for Honda’s brand as a whole.
For quite some time, most marketers have relied on social media as a supplementary platform, having it play second fiddle to the five billion dollar media buy giant. Is it now time for social media to take on a larger role? Perhaps.Marketers should focus on utilizing social media to its full potential by encouraging followers and, more importantly, engagement.
Image Source: Ad Week
