Ad agency claims this weekend’s game will be largest ‘Social Super Bowl’ ever
Jan 28, 2015, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — Sunday could be one of the biggest days ever for social media in the Valley.
That’s because the Super Bowl will be played in Glendale while the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open happens in Scottsdale. Thousands of people at both events will be posting on Facebook or tweeting out their selfies and other pictures from whichever event they attend.
Verizon said it was busy at last year’s Super Bowl.
“Last year, Verizon reported that over 1.9 terabytes of data were used at the 2014 Super Bowl, and it’s forecasted to be even higher this year,” said Katie Huntley, the director of client services at Integrated Web Strategy, a local and national marketing and advertising agency with offices in Phoenix and Washington, D.C.
Huntley said that Verizon is ready for the big day.
“Verizon did come to Phoenix to over quadruple the 4G LTE networks coverage in the area,” she said. “So they have quadrupled the capacity to account for the forecast of the tremendously higher data usage for this time.”
Huntley said that the data usage goes up during the game when people take their phone out to video a great play or other memorable moment of the Super Bowl.
Companies are also prepared to jump at the chance to capitalize on social media for advertising during the Super Bowl. Advertisers know that people are checking their Facebook and Twitter feeds while watching the game on TV. Instead of paying $4.5 million for a 30 second ad, companies who act fast and are quick-witted can capitalize on events happening in the game to promote their products.
The best example of this happened when a power outage at the Superdome in New Orleans caused a stoppage in play during the 2013 Super Bowl. The makers of Oreo cookies took advantage of it.
“When the power went out, they tweeted the famous ‘You can still dunk in the dark,” said Huntley. “That might have taken maybe 10 minutes for them to create. It was retweeted over 15,000 times, collected 8,000 followers and gained 20,000 likes on Facebook.”
Huntley said that Oreo’s tweet received more attention than many of the multi-million dollar television ads that aired during that same game.
