Social media presence and the Super Bowl

The Big Game is this Sunday and while you’re already salivating over a full day of eating, drinking and rooting on your favorite team, there are a number of American brands who are not only dropping upwards of $3 million for a commercial spot, but who will also be integrating their social media campaigns to offer up some pretty impressive prizes – just for logging into your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Budweiser has already reached out to fans pre-Super Bowl by alluding to three of its Super Bowl commercials and allowed viewers to guess the storylines. If the storyline has been guessed correctly, the company will launch a fourth, Internet-only ad this Sunday. More clues to commercials are featured on their Facebook page, which now has about one million fans.

Mercedes-Benz is running what they call a “Tweet Race” where four teams will race to Dallas in a Mercedes, which are fueled by how many times fans tweet using the hashtag of their favorite racing team, while also entering for a chance to win a new C-Class Coupe.

Audi will air a commercial during the first quarter that shows off their own Twitter hashtag to keep the conversation going online and KIA is also giving away a 2011 Optima by giving out contest clues on Twitter and Facebook.

What’s interesting about social media campaigning during a huge event like the Super Bowl is that there are two populations that brands are reaching out to. One population will most likely be too social in the real world with friends and families at their homes or bars to even so much as login to their Facebook or Twitter page to play along with the commercials and games. Nothing good ever comes when you’re tweeting or updating a status with a six-pack of beers in your system.

On the other hand, there are some pretty heavy social media users who would love the chance to show off to their friends and followers about how on top of it they are when it comes to trending social media. What better of a pick-up line is, “Oh yeah, I’m the guy that won the Mercedes during Super Bowl 2011”? Stay tuned for future coverage about this year's Super Bowl commercials.