Super Bowl Ads Now Target Two Types Of Screens

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The Super Bowl isn't just the biggest thing in football. It's the single most watched TV broadcast of the year and that makes it the biggest ad delivery vehicle of the year, too. We all know people who say they just watch the Super Bowl for the ads, but Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times watches the football and the ads.

Eric, welcome.

ERIC DEGGANS: Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: So, Eric, it seems like you don't even have to watch the game to see the ads anymore, right? I mean, they're all online already. We actually put together a little, kind of, montage of the greatest hits.

(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS)

CORNISH: Eric, was that dogs barking the "Star Wars" theme?

DEGGANS: Exactly. Yeah. It might be the seventh circle of hell for some people, I guess, but what that really was was a trailer for an ad, a different ad, that's going to run during the big game featuring a dog chasing after a Volkswagen. And this is part of the big trend now. We get trailers for ads and then we get the ad released several days before the actual big game and then we see the ad again when the game airs.

CORNISH: So they're really milking it. They're getting every dime out of the millions they spend for that ad time.

DEGGANS: The idea is to build buzz and one of the things we saw - the first clip was of Ferris Bueller, Matthew Broderick recreating a character that seems like his character from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." They put out a teaser where you saw that the current Matthew Broderick was reacting in a scene, recreating a scene from "Ferris Bueller," but you didn't know who the advertiser was. And I thought we wouldn't find out until the actual game, but it turns out, on Monday, they revealed the full ad and everyone has it on their Facebook pages and their blogs and they're talking about it online. So, by the time the game actually airs, there's already a lot of people who are already buzzing about it.

CORNISH: So, Eric, what does this mean in terms of mobile technology? I mean, are we seeing companies move some of the ads there, as well?

DEGGANS: Yes. We're seeing a lot of ads that reach out to the mobile space. Coca-Cola is doing something interesting where they're having the polar bears – their CGI, computer generated polar bears - star in a couple of ads and you can surf to a site that will also allow you to watch the polar bears react in real time to what's happening in the game. And each polar bear is wearing a little muffler that kind of is in the colors of each team that's playing, so depending on who's doing well and who's not, they react differently. Why someone would want to watch polar bears instead of an actual football game, I'm not sure.

CORNISH: Right. Well, the bears are talking. I mean, you got me there. Now, normally, I would totally make fun of this and anyone who does it, however, I've found that, more and more, I have a device open during events of all kinds, whether it's debates or, you know, something on TV and I am following what people are saying on Twitter and the social networking. So it seems like there's sort of two screens happening.

DEGGANS: Yes. What I have said in a story that I've written for the Tampa Bay Times is that the war is no longer for the first screen. The war is for the second screen. Now, what I worry about some of these social media applications that they've developed is that it's not really enabling you to talk to other people or connect with other friends, it's more about intersecting with this brand.

I don't necessarily care what the polar bears think about the Super Bowl. I'm more interested in what my friend in Baltimore or what my friend in San Francisco thinks about the game. You figure out a way to connect me to that person in a way that's compelling and that's when we'll really have the Super Bowl of social media.

CORNISH: Thanks so much, Eric.

DEGGANS: Thank you.

CORNISH: Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times.

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