Influencer Orchestration Network™

Super Bowl 50: Influencer Marketing Roundup

Influencer Marketing strategies are starting to show up in Super Bowl Advertising in interesting ways.

By @erburgess

In some ways, Super Bowl advertising feels like the opposite of Influencer Marketing. After all, the messages are generally broad and aimed at appealing to the largest possible audience. That makes sense because these ads are being broadcast to over a hundred million Americans. They are also seen on a traditional media format where impressions are estimated and usually feature either celebrity pitchmen or actors hired for their visual appeal. They’re also enormously expensive, with a 30 second TV ad costing $5 million dollars this year. This is quite different from most Influencer Marketing campaigns with their specific channels, focus on authentic messages from trusted sources and targeted content with direct links to conversion points.

However, smarter brands have figured out how to bring Influencer Marketing elements into mass-appeal Super Bowl promotions in unique ways that the industry as a whole will watch with interest. Whether it is for social media amplification, to draw niche audiences into the Super Bowl experience or to create content that has cross-over appeal, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting uses of Influencers and Social Media Creators that you’ll see as part of Sunday’s Big Game.

Kia has found a way to combine the old and the new. While their campaign includes Hollywood legend Christopher Walken, there is an effort to amplify it through partnership with social media influencers who received the featured socks from the ad and were asked to share them.

Totino’s has partnered with Twitch on The Bucking Couch, an interactive campaign that ties their video game content together with sports fans on Sunday in a simple way – they all sit on couches. Read up on how this wacky promotion will unfold before the game.

Unsurprisingly, other pizza peddlers are getting in on the action. Nestle’s DiGiorno frozen pizza brand also unlocked the power of YouTube by partnering with top YouTubers and Viners like Colleen Ballinger, Ray William Johnson, and DeStorm Power. In the video below, Power is joined by NFL linebacker Clay Matthews in a combination new and traditional celebrities. Of course, DiGiorno is also relying on the huge reach of these influencers to help engage their existing audiences during this campaign.

Lastly, don’t forget that Super Bowl Ads really continue to live on YouTube long after the winners collect their trophy, both in the form of reaction videos and simple archiving for later sharing of the best and most engaging videos. YouTube reports that 840 million minutes of Super Bowl ads were viewed on their platform last year, which both doubled year-over-year minutes and far exceeded the time spent watching during the actual game. Furthermore, brands that actually dropped their ads on YouTube prior to the game had more than twice as many views as those who held off until after the Big Game.

YouTube knows they’re a key part of the experience and want to keep it interactive for viewers. You can even vote on the best ads via YouTube AdBlitz while you watch the game on Sunday.