The Super Bowl is fast approaching, and people are getting excited—for the commercials, of course. In a recent survey, 78 percent of people said they enjoyed watching the commercials more than the game.
The difference between past Super Bowls ads and the plans used today is the timing of their release. Most ads are now debuting before the Sunday night of the game so viewers can increase the buzz beforehand. For marketers, an attempt to create viral activity outweighs the impact of surprise for the actual game.
“Viral” today is used daily in social media/marketing and just recently became a noun (along with an adjective and a verb). It is easy to forget the term had earlier origins—referring only to medicine before the 21st century.
The change we see with ad previews is that brands such as Budweiser and Coca-Cola will make their advertisements with millions of dollars during the Super Bowl, and now entrepreneurs can similarly create impact in media without paying for the Super Bowl spot. Big money ads have opened more doors for smaller businesses to give their input.
In the ever-changing 21st-century market, viral advertising and videos give marketers a new insight into the never-ending question of what consumers want. The big question that should now be asked is what can we do with it?
Read the full story at forbes.com