Dockers, Volkswagen and ETrade Integrate Super Bowl Ads with Facebook Campaigns

For many, the Super Bowl is more about advertising than football (though last night's game was far better than the ads). Last night was about integrated ad campaigns: - In real-time, Dockers rain a Facebook premium ad campaign to match their Super Bowl TV spots, "Wear the Pants" - Volkswagen did the same with their VW PunchDub spot - ETrade released "Baby Outtakes" from their successful TV spots... and got thousands of "likes" within hours - Dorritos, one of the largest advertisers, ran their ads from crowd-sourced ads and creatives The days of using the internet to merely gauge ad popularity are over...

We are now in the days of using the internet (and social networks in particular) to engage beyond the thirty-second spot. Facebook, Twitter and other social mediums are enabling fully integrated, social ad units. In a way, it makes the job of the marketer easier as there is flexibility to move beyond the thirty-second constraint (of course, that does require larger, integrated campaigns and therefore more work).

This also shows the power of Facebook as an advertising platform and the role it is playing within big marketers' budgets / mindsets. Examples below:

Dockers "Wear the Pants"

The Facebook ad unit

The Facebook ad with video playing

Dockers Facebook Fan Page

The Dockers website integration

VW PunchDub

ETrade Outtakes

TechCrunch reviewed the Super Bowl ads here and FT.com did here.

Apple's Latest iPhone Advertisement: All About Big Brands

In March, I wrote about Apple's full page advertisement in the New York Times touting the iPhone as a weekend tool: "Getting the most out of your weekend, one app at a time."

In yesterday's New York Times, they ran a continuation of the ongoing campaign - but with a slight twist: promote the branded apps (I wrote a post this week about seven of the best branded iPhone apps):

"It's pretty amazing who's on the iPhone these days. From CNN to Nike, Starbucks to FedEx, there are over 100,000 apps for just about anything. Only on the iPhone and the nation's fastest 3G network." It is a poor photo, but you can see that each of the applications comes from a very recognizable name: Nike, Starbucks, eBay, CNN, Gap, ESPN, Facebook, Target, Bank of America, Whole Foods, CNN, USA Today, Avis, eTrade, Pizza Hut and Barnes & Nobles.

Also of note, other than CNN's $1.99 app, all of these applications are free. In many of Apple's advertisements - and certainly in their app recommendations - they tend to promote paid applications... but here, the brand names are intended to sell hardware and reputation rather than micro-purchases.