The marketer’s favorite sport: Super Sunday ad judgment

It’s Super Sunday again, when we all render judgment and pontificate on which commercials are “the best.”

But what really constitutes “the best”? The funniest commercial? The ones that get the most buzz over the next 24 hours?

To me the “best ones” extend their ad spend and message across multiple channels. This year, companies will pay $3 million for 30 seconds of air time. That’s a lot of cheddar, so it’s critical to get PR and online/social media play well after (and sometimes before) the commercial airs – and not just in a next-day USA Today ad recap story.

In the past, I’ve admired Go Daddy for its ability to drive web traffic and public relations buzz well before and after the game. Go Daddy capitalized on post-Janet-Jackson hypersensitivity to ensure its ad submissions were just racy enough to be rejected by the ad boards, but not racy enough to really offend most viewers. The rejections drove media buzz and site visits when people flocked to Godaddy.com to see the rejected ads. Eventually, Go Daddy submits an acceptable version of the ad for airing, and everyone pays attention to see just how close to the line the ad was. The company successfully used this formula for several years.

Controversy isn't the only way to extend a Super Bowl ad buy, and isn't the best in my view. I'm looking forward to seeing who gets the most PR and social media bang for their buck this year.