The Super Bowl of Advertising is Missing the Point -- Alison Provost -- Touchstorm

Why are Super Bowl advertisers willing to pay so much for commercial time? Is their ad a momentary splash, or something bigger? Touchstorm suspects that 2014 is a tipping point, where the crossover of Super Bowl commercials into the online space via YouTube and other platforms is the main motivation for brands to lay out $4 million for a 30-second spot.

As Justin Osborne, Volkswagen’s GM of brand and marketing communications, told The New Yorker,“Our goals are about how many total views we can get. To assume that is going to happen within forty-eight hours is cutting yourself pretty short.” While we agree the views will come in long after the final whistle blows on the game, we also think views are just the beginning.

In discussing the opportunity for marketers to build momentum for ads outside the 30-second spot, Jessica Chappell of Horizon Media said, “These efforts make sense because they allow the consumer to interact with the brand.” We agree. The brand-consumer engagement is what drives long-term value.

So, do Super Bowl ads leave a vapor trail that’s more valuable to the brand than the in-game placement itself? Touchstorm is putting this hypothesis to the test. Our expertise lies in helping big brands use video to create strong connections with consumers online. Our analysis, conducted using our YouTube analytics engine Voot, helps make the payoffs to brands much more clear.

We’re wrapping some incredibly useful analysis around each of the Super Bowl ad spots on YouTube and presenting that in a live scorecard. Starting Tuesday, our Touchstorm Video Scorecard is the first dashboard tracking ad success by so much more than views and shares.

We’re showing comparisons on four key measures—views, velocity, likability and subscriber conversion—to show which ad is driving the most post-game value. And our dashboard synthesizes those four metrics into a single, Top 10 listing of the ads that are adding real value to the brand.

After the ads ran during the game, we can see what happens to them on YouTube—not just today, but for weeks to come. The Video Scorecard will send off daily updates analyzing how effective big brands are at converting their Super Bowl ads into added media value and deeper consumer connections via YouTube.

Take a look at the Video Scorecard at www.touchstorm.com , and come back daily to see which brands are generating the biggest brand equity aftershocks on YouTube.

Alison Provost is the CEO of Touchstorm, a technology-based services company that buildsYouTube audiences for the world’s largest brands.www.touchstorm.com

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