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Super Bowl ads to include more cross-platform calls to action

Super Bowl ads will include more cross-platform calls to action this year, according to Waterfall Mobile.

Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher interviewed Matt Silk, the company's Los Angeles-based senior vice president, who predicts that this year's Super Bowl will have more calls to cross-platform action, via Web site URLs and text messaging short codes. Here is what Mr. Silk had to say:

Why does Waterfall Mobile expect the number of SMS call-outs to increase during this year's Super Bowl?
Waterfall Mobile predicts that brands will look for more accountability in their 2009 ad spends because of several contributing factors including a down economy and a trend away from pure branding and toward more cross-platform initiatives incorporating mobile, web and even direct response marketing.

Several commercials during last year's Super Bowl included SMS call-outs, including an Obama campaign commercial and a United Way fundraising ad, and based on 2009 trends, we predict a stronger showing during this year's Super Bowl.

What demographics does the Super Bowl audience represent?
As a mass market spectacle, the Super Bowl remains one of the most-watched live television events each year -- 97.5 million viewers tuned in during last year's Super Bowl, the highest rated in history.

With the rise of broadband multimedia and online video, as well as the significant media coverage of Super Bowl advertisers, these ads are showing an increasingly long shelf life and buzz that stretches before, during and after the game.

What can a mobile component add to a cross-platform marketing initiative?
The ubiquity of mobile phones -- nearly 3 billion mobile phones worldwide, compared to 1.5 billion televisions and 1.1 billion computers -- underscores the importance of brands incorporating the mobile platform as part of a cross-platform initiative to reach their target audience.

The mobile platform's strongest selling point is its ability to create an ongoing personalized conversation with customers sparked by a short 30-second snippet targeted at Super Bowl households.

Mobile marketing can add accountability to media channels by measuring ad spends with mobile calls to action across traditional and online media placements.

Do you have some stats with regard to Super Bowl advertising?
Sixty-four percent of ads during the 2008 Super Bowl showed a Web site URL during the commercial, including prominent placement from companies such as FedEx, ETrade, CareerBuilder and Audi.

Waterfall Mobile expects this figure to grow in 2009.

Less than 5 percent of Super Bowl ads had text messaging call-outs in 2008 but Waterfall Mobile predicts that number to increase to at least 10 percent and perhaps as much as 15 percent for 2009 ads.

United Way's Super Bowl ad last year marked one of the most prominent uses of a text messaging fund-raising campaign in 2008.

The ad asked people to send the text message "FIT" to "864833" to donate $5.00 for youth fitness.

President Obama's campaign used the short code "62262" (Obama) during its 2008 Super Bowl commercial to encourage viewers to sign up for additional messages from the campaign.

Who are Waterfall Mobile's clients? What challenges does Waterfall address for them?
Waterfall Mobile's customers range from Fortune 500 brands, to interactive agencies, to leading media companies, to the largest college campus system in the US.

The company's products are used by marketers to create mobile marketing campaigns nationwide, including hundreds of well-known consumer brands, across all major vertical industries such as Toyota, BMW, Sears, Disney and Miller Brewing Company.

Waterfall Mobile's mission is simple. The company develops best-in-class Web-based software products for brands to tap into the power of mobile, removing the barriers (cost, complexity and time) currently stifling the industry. Waterfall Mobile has built the industry's most flexible and open platform for managing mobile messaging, SMS and IVR. The patent-pending Waterfall platform catapults the industry forward as it was specifically designed for scalability, reliability and extensibility from day one.