Super Bowl Commercial Watchers - Here We Go!

Plenty of tech blogs 'live blog' big events like the annual Jobs keynote at Macworld.  And for those of us who monitor stuff that consumers are passionate about ... well, this is the big day.  So I'll do my best to track and summarize the attention that 37 advertisers will recieve, the ones who've decided to plunk down between $2.5 and $3 million dollars for each 30- seconds of commerical air time during the Super Bowl.  In addition to covering the 'coverage' of adver-mania, I'll be throwing my own opinion of various  ads into the ring.  This is fun.  I'm one of those who enjoys the commercial aspect of the Big Game as much - honestly, more - than the game part.  And it's my 100th post, for whatever that's worth.

USA Today has been a leader in following and celebrating the hoopla created by Super Bowl ads for two decades.  Its Super Bowl Ad Meter offers exclusive, real-time consumer rating of all the big game's ads, relying on focus groups in multiple cities using handheld devices to register second-by-second reactions to commercials.  USA Today will release its Ad Meter results on Monday. 

USA Today is not alone when it comes to Super Bowl ad monitoring.  Using a new social networking platform called MIMIEO, graduate students at Chicago's Northwestern University will poll thousands of fans on their opinions of the ads.  During each quarter of the game,  the student’s website will gather feedback from fans on how much they liked the ads, and whether their future purchasing decisions have been influenced. 

Using MIMEO's technology, users will be able to submit feedback from multiple sources simultaneously, including Facebook (using the PickMe application), Apple iPhones, Internet enabled mobile devices, as well as the website VoteSuperBowlAds.com.  Following the game, a panel of Northwestern University grad students will analyze the results and publish a detailed report on the winners and losers.

MIMIEO is a social networking platform created recently by several Northwestern students to provide open and real-time access to consumer polls.  Using an integrated suite of applications, MIMIEO can poll consumers simultaneously via social networking websites, mobile phones, multi-media websites, and other Internet enabled sources.  Other future events include The Oscars (Feb 24th) and polling of the presidential candidate rankings.

If you want to watch today's ads again and again, after the game's over, you can check out Hulu.com.  The NBC and Fox-owned video site says it'll post all of the Super Bowl ads immediately following the game, in "high quality streaming video".  Another site to check out:  Mahalo.com, the "human powered search engine" founded by Jason Calcanis.  Mahalo Sports will be proving live coverage of the Super Bowl commercials.  Youtube has a special page set up for game ads as well.  Go here to view the ads after the game, and cast votes for your favorites.  Oh, and almost forgot:  Myspace.com/Superbowlads.com.  This site is being promoted during the Fox telecast.  All the ads should be posted there by end of game.   

Comments

[Glenn]

Thank you so much for the post! We are getting lots of great data for our grad school study. Over 50,000 visits today.

[Jeff Crites]

Glenn:

My pleasure. I was excited when I discovered what you folks were up to, with MIMIEO and the VoteSuperBowlAds.com site.