With all that being said, is it really worth all those dollars? With the proliferation of social media, ads are now aired in full online before they hit the big screen on game day. If the majority of the audience has already seen the commercials, do brands and companies need to spend the millions of dollars in airing it during the big game?

Moreover, with online media, campaigns and advertisements experience a much longer shelf life. In the past, once the commercials aired, that was it – no revisiting or replaying, no sharing. Now, with the popularity of social media and the ever-growing online video platform YouTube, advertisements live on for days, months, and even years. As such, the success of an ad relies not only on the viewership on game-day, but on the virality of the ad – How many times was it viewed? How many times was it mentioned on Twitter? How many shares did it receive?

In recent years, some of the most successful ad campaigns relied on social media. Nike’s “Write The Future” ad aired during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and relied on a heavy social media/viral push in the months leading up to the championship game. In a twist of convention, Nike isn’t an official sponsor of FIFA World Cup – Adidas is. According to statistics from Wieden+Kennedy (the agency that produced the campaign), Nike generated 40 million + online views of their 3-minute spot, 1.9 billion impressions on Facebook, and their Facebook Fan Page experienced an increase of 336 per cent in Likes. Above all that, Nike captured 30 per cent of the brand buzz – double that of Adidas.

From Dave Thier of Forbes: “A stat like $3.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime may see a serious hit in the future as advertisers realize that the internet can yield just as big an audience as football without having to go through NBC.”

Below, we take a look at some of the 2012 Super Bowl advertisements that have been generating buzz in the past few weeks and offer our own critique of their potential success and virality:

Honda CR-V: Matthew Broderick “Matthew’s Day Off”

Car manufacturers will appear to be taking over our television sets this weekend as commercial after commercial will be turbocharged and performance-inspired. Honda is releasing their newest model of the CR-V and hoping to take us back to our days of bowl cuts and Club Monaco sweaters. Using the clever appeal of the ever popular ‘80s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the commercial stars Matthew Broderick as he takes a day off from his acting responsibilities. The commercial revisits memorable scenes from the movie and even ties in a Chinese New Year angle.

For a social tie-in, Honda has a Leap List Facebook app on their Page encouraging users to create a bucket list of activities they want to complete during the leap year. Nothing to note on Twitter besides their official hashtag: #dayoff.

• Our take: Is it memorable? No, there’s nothing humourous or riské and nothing to drive us to pass it on to our friends. Moreover, the entire ad spot has been aired online. Viral success? The ad has been on YouTube for four days and it already has nearly 434,000 views. Chances of me taking a bathroom break when this spot airs on game day? 100 per cent.

Volkswagen: “The Bark Side”

Volkswagen is given top marks in my books for not revealing the entire ad prior to the big game – you’re paying millions of dollars for a 60-second spot, take advantage of it. By producing a commercial for their commercial, VW cleverly leaves us wanting more by peaking our curiousity for what’s to come. The fan favourite The Force from last year’s Super Bowl was a huge hit that attracted nearly 50 million views online and this year VW builds on that with their The Bark Side commercial for a commercial. The dogs bark through Darth Vader’s theme, a.k.a. The Imperial Death March, and that’s it.

• Our take: Unlike the other car commercials we touch on in this post, there isn’t even a hint of a car or a mention of horsepower in this commercial and, ultimately, that’s what the Super Bowl viewer wants: to be entertained. VW gets top marks because they don’t reveal the actual advertisement online, leaving us curious and wanting to view more. Proof of their success: the teaser already has over 10 million hits on YouTube. Above all that, who doesn’t love cute dogs?

Hyundai

As if we weren’t getting enough of car advertisements, Hyundai decides to hit us with five advertisements on game day. Five. The theme of the advertisements is performance and follows a very patriotic American theme. From a man performing chest compressions on his unconscious boss and the stars and stripes forever, to a racing cheetah and the Rocky theme song, the commercials, according to Inside Line (and we couldn’t agree more), are “all over the map creatively.” Of the five commercials, the only one that has Super Bowl potential is the “All For One” ad that scored the coveted pre-kick time slot. With the Rocky theme song and over 200 “actual” Hyundai team members, the ad provides a decent mix of random humour and pop culture appeal.

• Our take: Hyundai should have saved the tens of millions of dollars spent on the five ads. There is little to no social media back-up except for a handful of Facebook video posts and tweets. Their only possible saving grace is the “All For One” spot.

Coca-Cola: the polar bears

The Coca-Cola polar bears are throwing a game day party and they want us to join! Viewing from the comforts of their “snowfa”, the bears will be streamed live on the Coke Polar Bowl microsite and Coca-Cola is encouraging fans to RSVP to the party.

Coca-Cola is appealing to the nostalgia of the brand and bringing out the bears that we have all come to know, love, and associate with the brand. During the game, Coca-Cola will roll out two ads: a 30-second spot in the first quarter introducing the bears and a 60-second second quarter ad that will be a game-time call depending on how the game unfolds on the real-life field.

Moreover, Coca-Cola smartly extends the campaign across digital and mobile with the Coke Polar Bowl microsite. On game day, a live-stream will show the bears on their snowfa, allowing fans to chat with them live during the game. Additionally, rich-media banners will show the bears reacting to the game and the commercials as they play out. Twitter and Facebook will see Coca-Cola writing notes to fans and sending out clips extracted from the live stream. For a social good touch, Coke has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and is donating $1 to every event RSVP on Facebook.

• Our take: The ads themselves aren’t memorable. While they are cute and have a nostalgic appeal, there’s nothing there to encourage anyone to share it or watch it more than once. Additionally, the ad doesn’t appeal to the target audience – online interactions seem more appealing to younger children than to 18-34 year old men noshing on hot wings and beer. Coca-Cola’s success will lie in their strong social media tie-in with the microsite and the live-stream.

H&M: David Beckham underwear line

In the ad’s YouTube description, H&M claims that he is “sporting various pieces from the new collection.” I don’t know about you, but I really only see one piece.

• Our take: Sex appeal. Done.

Well, we were thrilled to find out that, as of last week, Facebook has removed the pre-approval and financial commitment for running contests. Now, any company can run a contest on a Facebook Page, or within a Facebook app, and it only helps our Memelabs contesting platform grow stronger. We’ve had some great Facebook video contests run in the past, from Dove’s Sing 4 All to Bookbyte’s “Textbook Way to Save” contest.

We suspect the change is largely due to the fact that Facebook has been growing and they have enough people in place to fully review all the contests and make sure the legalities are in order. Far less hand-holding certainly opens the playing field. This is especially good news for small and medium-sized businesses, as more and more of them are running campaigns on social networks. For the larger brands that Invoke typically works with, it greatly helps lessen the barriers and allows Facebook to tie into larger contesting platforms and campaigns.

Read more commentary on the news in ClickZ, Inside Facebook, and Marketing Pilgrim.

They say ‘the devil is in the details’ and thats no clich?�. Well maybe it is a clich?� but its also a statement of fact. Here are a couple lovely examples of people just getting it wrong and apparently nobody able to catch it before it ‘goes live.’

iPhone in an ad. This goes beyond a model not knowing how to hold the phone. Are you telling me nobody on this photo shoot knew which end was up? FAIL

And this is just unfortunate. Not even Barack has a grasp on a function he has been performing for many, many years:

OK, so that one is fake. It’s still somewhat entertaining and a perfect tie-in to the iPhone FAIL pic.

I know there are countless others. Post some links in the comments to your favorites.

We are absolutely inundated with marketing and advertising messages from the time we wake up to when our heads hit the pillows at night. But, even with all this time, money, and effort that goes into these traditional and online campaign, unaided recall of most advertising is abysmal.? Think about it can you name and ad or two that you’ve seen in the past hour.? Didn’t think so.

Our brains receive so much information, they have learned to tune out things that are unimportant.? Unfortunately, advertising and marketing quite often falls into this realm.? In order to make sure that your message breaks through this filter, it needs to be unique and stand out from the rest of the noise.

Well one airline has managed to do just that with an innovative email newsletter.? It really does make you go WTF?

This newsletter takes an everyday acronym that anyone who has ever used IM is familiar with and has re-purposed it.? Because we are not expecting a corporate email to have the title WTF, it stands out in our heads.? We then look at their newsletter to see what they are talking about.

*I’d like to give credit to Media Bistro for blogging about this.? Although they didn’t like the email, it’s gotten us all talking about it, which really is the point of advertising.? Get your brand out there and have people talking about it.

This one goes in the category of WTF were they thinking when they designed this product. I don’t know who to blame for it – branding or marketing – all I know is, is that I laughed hysterically when I read the packaging on the can of this energy drink. Enjoy.

When I looked up what horny goat weed is this is what I found:

Behind the funny name of horny goat weed stands a time-tested aphrodisiac that increases libido in men and women, and improves erectile function in men. Known also as Epimedium or Yin Yang Huo, horny goat weed was first described in ancient classical Chinese medicinal texts. Today, horny goat weed holds an important place in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is gaining popularity around the world.

Drink responsibly!