Unruly, a UK-based company specializing in social video campaigns, released a great infographic highlighting the top facts that brands show know when it comes to create Super Bowl advertisements that resonate socially. I originally found this through an article on AdWeek.com (want to give credit!) and thought it had some pretty good insights, particularly on how effective teaser versions have such an impact on social distribution.

You can click here to read more about this research at Unruly’s website, and they also have links to their “Super Bowl Social Video Playbook” and “The Most Shared Super Bowl Ads of All Time” – great additional resources.

I think the Oakland Raiders are one of the best organizations when it comes to driving merchandise sales and making the best use of their customer database. To that note, each year they run a great campaign called the  ”Twelve Days of Holiday Savings.” Their first offer came out today via email, and each subsequent day, they will email out the next offer.

Typically, one of the downsides of this type of campaign is that consumers are left to decide “should I purchase today, or wait to see what tomorrow’s offer is?” The Raiders get past this by making the entire calendar available (see the link at the top of the email). In the past, I believe they’ve also tried revealing only a couple of days in advance but still leaving some anticipation about what the full calendar holds.

I really like this campaign as an overall merchandise sales strategy for the holiday season. Most importantly, the variety and quality of offers is excellent, which will both drive sales and minimize opt-out rates as they communicate each offer to their database.

Thanks to Pinterest (just started trying it out today), I found this great infographic from ExactTarget on who won the 2012 “Social” Super Bowl. You can click here to read the original blog post.

This infographic is brought to you by ExactTarget a leader in Email Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.

With Super Bowl Sunday around the corner, now is a great time to think about some of the various sports business plots tied to the big game…

- The Ratings Game:  With two of the country’s top markets represented in what’s been billed as a rematch of Super Bowl 42, this year’s game is in position to set another record. Last year’s game averaged 111 million viewers, which was 4.5 million more than the previous year. Could we see 115 million this year? Maybe even 120? Well, 120 million might be a stretch, but it’s probably safe to assume that this year will set another ratings record.

- Hello Indianapolis:  If you build a new stadium, there’s a good chance you will host a Super Bowl. Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008, and gets to host the big game at the end of its fourth full season. While the game may break television records, attendance will be significantly lower this year because the stadium only holds around 70,000 for football, almost 30,000 less than last year’s game in Dallas. With 30,000 less ticket buyers in attendance, there could be a smaller economic impact on the city compared to previous host locations, but “small” is relative. Historically, the Super Bowl generated upwards of $500 million in additional revenue for the host city.

- Marketable Superstars:  This game features two of the league’s most marketable players in Tom Brady and Eli Manning, with both athletes already tied to several visible product endorsement deals. The real question is, will anyone else make a big leap in marketability from this game? Some potential names to watch include Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, Jason Pierre-Paul, Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. While every local fan and fantasy football participant knows these names, starring on this stage can take them from fantasy-relevance to national-relevance very quickly.

- Ticket Prices:  Darren Rovell has been covering this story over on his CNBC blog and on his Twitter feed. The combination of marquee opponents in high-income markets playing in close proximity to another high-value market (Chicago) has all contributed to drive up tickets prices even more than normal. Of course, the market may be over-inflated right now, so those hoping for a bargains may see prices come back to earth this week. If you do plan on going to the game, I hope you booked your flight a while ago, as flights into Indy are completely booked and flights into Chicago have risen over 200%.

- The Commercials:  It almost seems like every year, the commercials draw just as much attention as the game does, which certainly goes a long way to explain their cost – an astronomical $3.5 million for a 30-second spot. On Monday, we can all argue which ones were the funniest, the most bizarre, the most effective and most ridiculous. A new twist this year seems to be the decision by several companies to release the commercials before the game airs. You can click here to view seven ads that are currently available online. While leaking the ad early does remove some of the surprise element, it will still be seen on Sunday by those 100+ million viewers, so maybe this tactic will end up generating more buzz for these companies.

I received an email last week from the St. Louis Rams about a new program called “Football University” that I thought was a great idea, so I wanted to share it with you here:

Teams are always looking for new packages and experiences to sell, and this package has a lot of unique benefits outside of just revenue:

• It’s a great integration with existing health care partners, creating more value for their sponsorship (and a nice mention for the team’s catering provider as well)
• The pink color scheme is consistent with all of the NFL’s breast cancer awareness messaging
• The package itself, with inside access to the team’s staff and facilities appeals to casual and hardcore fans alike
• Offering it with and without a game ticket creates flexibility for the consumers, while also hopefully providing a lift for ticket sales
• The inclusion of a charitable component (the United Way) is a great way to give back, and can also encourage more purchases
• Finally, I really like the name of the event – “Football University”

With the NHL Playoffs starting today, it’s a great time to look at how the NHL differs from other major American sports leagues in crowning their champion.

National Football League (NFL)

Only 12 of 32 NFL teams make the playoffs each year. At 37.5%, the NFL has one of the lowest percentages of teams allowed into the postseason. Four division winners from each conference automatically qualify, plus two Wild Card teams (non-division winners with the best record). At times, this can make for interesting seeding. In 2011, for example, the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record. They were slated to host the first round matchup against the 11-5 New Orleans Saints, the non-division winner Wild Card out of the NFC South. There was quite an uproar about whether Seattle deserved to host that game, but they quieted  (most of) the critics when they pulled out a 41-36 win.

National Basketball Association (NBA)

In the NBA, 16 out of 30 teams (a whopping 53.3%), make the playoffs. Once those 16 teams are seeded, the bracket will never change, regardless of any upsets that occur.

Major League Baseball (MLB)

MLB doesn’t refer to their tournament as the ‘playoffs.’ For baseball, it’s the ‘postseason’ that determines the champion. Only 8 of the 30 MLB teams (the lowest of all major American sports leagues at 26.7%), make the postseason, often coming down to the very last game, and occasionally needing an extra game as a tiebreaker.

Major League Soccer (MLS)

The youngest of the major American leagues, MLS advances 10 of their current 18 teams (55.5%) to the playoffs. Five teams from each conference are seeded, and while the first three seeds get byes, the #4 and #5 seeds play each other for the right to face the #1 seed. Once the bracket is set, no changes are made to account for upsets.

National Hockey League (NHL)

The NHL may just be the most fair when it comes to their playoff system. While they do allow a large percentage of their teams in (16 out of 30 – 53.3%), teams are re-seeded after each round. What this takes into account, that no other major American league does, is the regular season. A lower-seeded team that didn’t perform as well over the course of the 82-game season, doesn’t get an easier path to the Stanley Cup Finals just because they upset the higher seed. Kudos to the NHL for keeping the regular season more relevant than the other four leagues.

What is your favorite playoff system? Do any of these five leagues get it right? Should MLS consider going to the European-style of crowning the regular-season champion and forgoing any regular season?

Image courtesy of NHL.com

By now, everyone has seen most of the ads from Sunday’s game, either during the broadcast or online (if you haven’t, the best place to go is the AdBlitz page on YouTube – go there now!). Everyone has their own opinions as to which were the best and the worst, so I feel its only logical that I contribute some of my thoughts on the subject.

To me, for a Super Bowl Ad to be a real winner, it needs to:

1. Connect with the consumer in an entertaining or impactful manner
2. Resonate in a way that positively connects to the brand
3. Create a lasting impression that leads to additional brand value over time

It seems like many ads are so focused on #1, that #2 and #3 are overlooked.  Based on these three ideas along with my general thoughts, I’m categorizing many of the ads into one of four buckets: Winners, Losers, Mixed Bag and “Old Faithfuls”:

Winners:

• Audi: A long spot, which can be dangerous, but I felt it was entertaining and held my attention as I wanted to see what they were building up to. The final message of choosing “new luxury” definitely resonates with Audi’s marketing strategy, which is the biggest reason I felt that this was a winner.
• Best Buy: Had a fun mix of celebrities combined with an easy to understand message (technology getting outdated so fast). This fits perfectly with the launch of their “buy-back” program and the ad was unique and funny enough to be memorable.
• Sealy: This was the most “risque” ad of the night, which ends up making it one of the most memorable. A different approach for a large-scale mattress advertisement, but one that I think ends up resonating at least on some level with the viewers.
• HomeAway.com: Just funny enough with the “test baby” and very connected to the message is very clear. It is a bold move for a company that doesn’t typically spend on television to have a Super Bowl ad, but it can be a great way to make a quick impact. I believe this is the 2nd time HomeAway.com has done this, and I think it works for them.
• CareerBuilder and Teleflora: I’m grouping these together because both were simple, funny, had a clear brand connection, and used humor to resonate with the viewer. Sometimes a simple, straightforward approach is best.

Losers:

• Stella Artois: Long ad, very slow-developing and I didn’t feel like it did anything to be memorable or distinguish Stella Artois. It’s always nice to have a celebrity involved, but I don’t see how that added much value in this case. In addition, consumers tend to expect humor from their Super Bowl beer commercials. While Stella clearly has a different value proposition than Budweiser, I don’t think this was the right channel for them.
• Groupon: The entire Tibet-themed build-up seemed too disconnected, almost to the point of being uncomfortable. Then to tie it back to discounted Tibetan food just felt wrong. For a new entrant like Groupon that has what for most consumers is still a new business model, I thought they could have used the time to sell their concept better.
• Chatter.com (SalesForce): In general, it’s a bit surprising to see a B2B ad in the Super Bowl mix (let alone two from the same company), but I don’t think most folks understood what the point of these ads even was. Sometimes that can be good, if there’s enough reason to go online and learn more, but in this case, I don’t feel there was enough to make people do that.

Mixed Bag:

• Motorola: Their 60 second spot had great visuals and an effective, easy-to-follow plot line that featured a tablet device. My problem is that it too so long to learn that it was a Motorola Xoom tablet that I wouldn’t be surprised if most people thought the device being shown was a iPad. Does the “surprise” that it’s not an iPad leave more or less of an impact? I’m not sure, but I’m leaning towards no.
• Volkswagen: I know that the common perception is that VW’s “Darth Vader” might have been the most positively-received ad of the night, but I don’t see the connection to the brand. You can install a remote starter to any car (side note: wouldn’t be surprised if this ad generates a spike in sales for remote starters), and the ad itself felt different than most other VW campaigns, so I’m unsure if there will be a lasting impact.
• Bridgestone: This is another ad that people found to be quite funny, since most of us can relate to the accidental “reply-all” email. The problem is that viewers can connect so much to the humor that we didn’t end up connecting to the brand. There were only a couple of brief clips showing car tires during tight turns, with most of the time focused on the crazy guy grabbing computers and cell phones. Without the three-second Bridgestone tag at the end, I would have had no idea what type of product, let alone company, was being promoted.
• BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, Mini, Chevy, Chrysler, Suzuki, Cars.com, Carmax: This seemed to be a very car-heavy year for Super Bowl ads, which unfortunately has the effect of making them all blend together. I think most of these ads were generally pretty good (among these, the Chrysler “Detroit” and Chevy “Glee” ads stood out most), but because of the clutter, I’m unsure about what impact they ended up having.

“Old Faithfuls”:

• Budweiser, Snickers, E-Trade, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Doritos, Go Daddy: Nothing too surprising with these brands, which all seemed to go with their usual approaches (humor, talking babies, user-generated content, and “see the unrated version online”). I almost feel like these brands are so entrenched as part of the Super Bowl experience, the only impact left would be if any of them decided not to advertise. This is the approach Coors took, which probably made Bud’s advertising more effective.
• Movie trailers: Blockbuster movies continued to have a big presence in the commercials. For a product like this, where the films aren’t being released for several months and large scale ad campaigns are most likely on the way, I still wonder about the impact that a single Super Bowl ad can have for a film.

I know there were many more ads than this, but these were the ones that most clearly stood out as being part of these categories and its hard to review all of them. Most others were generally pretty good, with a mixed level of brand effectiveness. If there was anything else that really stood out to you, please share your comments below.

One final thought – in the days leading up to the game, I felt there was some buzz related to how this year’s advertisements would have a deeper social media connection as a way to engage viewers beyond the ad itself. Other than several videos being “leaked” online ahead of time, I didn’t notice any significant social media promotion or utilization in this year’s ads. Considering the cost and the different approaches of television (mass advertising) vs. social media (individual engagement), maybe the advertisers didn’t see much additional value in it, although that is still surprising to me.

Unfortunately, I am not in Dallas this week, otherwise I’d love to bring you a first-person recap of the top sports business stories from the Super Bowl. So the next best thing I can do is to share some great links from other writers. Enjoy, and have a great Super Bowl Sunday!

AdWeek Presents: Super Commercials XLV

- We all know that the commercials are almost as big as the game for a large percentage of household viewers, and AdWeek always has great coverage of all the ads. Right now, they have an archive of some past favorites and news about this year’s expected ads.

CNBC Business of the Super Bowl Special Report

- You can always could on Darren Rovell for great sports business content, and on top of that, CNBC has increased their sports business coverage of this year’s big game. Some of their stories cover commercials, stadium financing, plasma TV sales, counterfeit tickets and the economic impact of the Dallas weather this week.

Sports Marketing 2.0

- Pat Coyle started some great discussion of the value of the advertisements themselves vs. the social media/mobile impact they can have. You can see the forum discussion here.

Marketing Opportunities for Super Bowl Stars (JSOnline.com)

- The biggest stage creates the biggest opportunities, especially for the players. This article from the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel focuses on the Green Bay Packers side, which is probably most useful, since most of the Steelers have been on this stage quite recently.

And of course, Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily have had great coverage of all the top stories (subscriptions required). Please feel free to share any other links that you like in the comments below.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Eric Habermas who attended Nike’s Football Media Summit earlier this week.

If there is one thing nobody can argue about when it comes to Nike it’s that the sports apparel giant knows how to create a buzz. And Tuesday’s Nike Football Media Summit in Dallas was no exception.

Complete with smoke and special effects, not to mention Jerry Jones’ out-of-this-world video board looming overhead, Nike went to great lengths to put on a show at Cowboys Stadium. Former Heisman winner and Super Bowl MVP Desmond Howard served as emcee and was joined on-stage by several NFL stars as Nike rolled out the latest installment of its edgy Pro Combat uniform line — Oregon, Florida, Boise State and TCU will wear them in bowl games — and unveiled its newest and lightest football cleat yet, the Air Zoom Alpha Talon.

Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe, who leads the NFL with 14 touchdown receptions, was among the NFL players on-stage and raved about the new cleats, and an obviously jealous Howard later quipped, “I might as well have been wearing army boots compared to what the players have now.”

But with Oregon set to play Auburn in the BCS National Championship game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz., it was predictably the Ducks’ uniforms that sparked the most chatter at the event.  The new Ducks duds are predominantly white and gray — basic enough, right? — except it looks like someone took a highlighter pen and outlined the numbers and the signature “O” on the graphite-colored helmet. The Ducks’ socks are also a distinct, look-at-me neon yellow.

The Oregon uniforms, despite being noticeably absent any trace of the color green, are a step up from the colorless uniforms the Ducks wore in its Civil War rivalry game with Oregon State when TV viewers tuning in must have thought they suddenly had a black-and-white TV again. So, love them or hate them, you will definitely notice them and almost certainly have something to say about them, which speaks to the genius of the Nike marketing machine.

Give credit to Nike for taking an otherwise dull weekday in December and turning it into a showcase for how it is constantly reshaping football — for both the players and fans.

You can find additional coverage of this event at:

• An Inside Look at the 2010 Nike Football Media Summit – PartnershipActivation.com
• Nike Football Summit: Boise St., Florida, TCU and Oregon All Get New Bowl Uniforms – BearConsults.com

Two weeks ago, I received an email from the Buffalo Bills about a new rewards program they were launching called “My Bills Rewards”

Seems like a good concept, and other teams have run different types of affinity rewards programs. So what is the value of a program like this?

• Provide additional value to your customers to build loyalty. This is the biggest reason behind most traditional affinity programs. Ironically though, in sports, most customers already have a high degree of affinity and loyalty, so creating a separate program for that purpose may not have a significant impact. For newer teams without much history, teams in more transient markets, or teams that have under-performed, these programs could have more impact on customer retention.
• Provide more value to your corporate partners. Depending on who the Bills are working with and how this particular program is structured, you’d think that Bills partners are probably featured heavily in the program. If enough Bills fans participate, this can create a nice additional (and easily measured) revenue source for the team’s sponsors.
• Increase the chance for renewals and up-sells. By giving participants double credit if they apply rewards to ticket purchases, there’s a greater opportunity to convert participation into additional ticket purchases by providing a “discount” to program members.

The biggest challenge with these programs is driving adoption. It requires a great deal of communication and promotion to generate the number of participants needed for a sustainable, profitable rewards program. And even if this email campaign creates a large initial influx of registrations, there needs to be enough value and communication from the rewards program to keep participants engaged and coming back. It will be interesting to see how this program does and how the team decides to promote it moving forward.