Blog: Crowdsourcing Dominates Super Bowl Ads

Many companies are trying to find new, innovative, and inexpensive methods from which to conduct market research. Many big brands are turning to crowdsourcing through social media outlets such as Facebook to find out what their fans really want. Individuals tend to align themselves with brands that not only value their opinions, but listen to what they say and put it into action. Brands have taken notice of the immense interactivity of crowdsourcing and have attempted to display their talents in procuring creative user-generated content surrounding the most watched event on television…..the Super Bowl!!

Many spectators sitting at their home, sports bar or a popular Super Bowl party are not as interested in the game itself as they are in the oftentimes provocative and comical commercials. Super Bowl advertisers, including Pepsi, Lincoln,Pizza Hut and Doritos, all have reached out to the public via social media for help with their ads to air in the Feb. 3 game. Needless to say this is prime real estate for any sort of advertising with a U.S. audience of over 111 million. Yowsa!

This now begs the question, is it worth a company to use its 30-second Super Bowl ad spot on content that is the result of crowdsourcing? Taking into consideration that the average cost for said ads is $4,000,000

Undoubtedly, the most popular crowdsourcing fueled contest for Super Bowlads has been developed by Doritos.  The chip company has made a name for itself through its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, which allows anybody to record and submit a video featuring the Doritos brand for a chance to win $1 million and have their submission featured during the Super Bowl. This has proven to be amazingly successful in fielding ads for cheap, if not free.

Since 2007, a Doritos ad has landed in the top five favorite ads in USA Today’s AdMeter. In 2009, 2011 and 2012, Doritos has actually taken the top spot. What’s amazing about these placements is that for the past six years, Doritos’ ads haven’t been made by professionals, but by fans and people who want to make a name for themselves in advertising.

A new entrant into the crowdsourcing scene is Dunder Mifflin, from the famous and beloved NBC television series The Office. The company was made a reality in 2011 when Quill.com began creating and selling paper under the Dunder Mifflin name. So this seems to be a win-win-win-win event with cross promotion for NBC and its show, but also, Quill, Staples & the broadcasting stations.

This is shaping up to be a big year for crowdsourced marketing, so let’s see if the crowd can live up to the high standards set by previous Super Bowl ads. All of us at WeShareMedia will be partaking in traditional American Super Bowlfestivities. Seeing a further integration of social media into the most sought after advertising spots in the world. As marketing trends grow further and further into our area of expertise, the room for growth and direct engagement is firmly within reach.