Super Bowl XLIX is less than a week away! Whether you plan to sit down and watch the big game or not, your fans are most likely tuning into the game.
In 2014, Super Bowl XLVIII drew an average of 111.3 million viewers, peaking with 117.7 in the final half hour. That means there's a good chance the game was on in at least half the households in the U.S.
It also means the Super Bowl can be a fantastic marketing opportunity - if you approach it the right way.
The first thing you need to do is determine whether your business really has anything to offer that's relevant to the Super Bowl. If the event doesn't fit your brand in any way, it may not be worth the effort.
However, if your brand does have something relevant to offer - e.g., food, sports, fun, games, etc. - there are a few ways you can get your audience talking about the Big Game that could benefit your business.
Use These Three Ideas to Engage with Your Fans During the Big Game
1. Run a "Guess the Score" Promotion
This year the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will pair off on February 1st. One of the easiest and most fun ways to get your fans talking is to ask them to guess the score of the upcoming game.
Using ShortStack's Guess the Score Template you can build a quick promotion where your fans provide their name, email and score guesses in less than 30 minutes.
You can then use Facebook's custom Super Bowl audience to target your ads.
Don't forget to offer a fun and relevant prize to the fan who comes closest to the final score. Use the email addresses you collect to start building a marketing list for special promotions and educational materials that pertain to your company.
For even more exposure, publish your Guess the Score promotion to Facebook and to the Web and drive traffic from all of your social profiles and online marketing.
2. Use Hashtags to Engage with Your Audience
There's no question that Twitter is going to be ablaze with Super Bowl hashtags on the day of the game. In 2014, 25.3 million tweets by 5.6 million authors and a unique audience of 15.3 million accounts talked about the Big Game.
It's going to be easy to get lost in the tweet haze if you try to run a day-of promotion, but there are a few Twitter hashtag ideas you can implement before the game comes.
For one, you can carry on the "Guess the Score" idea to Twitter and ask fans to guess what the final score will be and include a hashtag like #guessthescore.
You can also ask your fans to predict some other popular stats, like how many yards will be run by each team, how many touchdowns will be thrown, or how many passes will be caught. Whoever has the most accurate guess could win a surprise gift from you!
With so many active people online it may benefit you to simply join the conversation. Do your research on the hashtags that are being used and start some chatter about what's going on. Your fans will enjoy seeing a human side of your brand and you'll have a bunch of friends to talk about the game with! John Donnelly, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Crimson Hexagon has some great advice for brands looking to join the conversation for the Big Game:
"While every brand would love to be the next Oreo, remember that there's a great deal of value in engaging your niche audiences-even if you don't make a "Top Ten Super Bowl Tweets" list," he wrote in an email. "You don't have to appeal to the general public in every tweet. Instead, focus on what your community and customers respond well to by leveraging predictive analytics, and how they're interacting with the game, and use that to propel your engagement strategy. It may not get you headlines, but if it helps you build affinity among your customers and potential customers, I'd consider that a big success."
3. Host an Instagram Contest
Instagram is an ideal place to have a Super Bowl promotion because people are spending the day gathering with their friends and family and participating in a fun event! They'll be taking pictures at their parties, so it's the perfect time for businesses to ask their fans to upload pictures of themselves enjoying the game in exchange for a chance to win a prize. Make sure you throw a relevant hashtag onto your promotion so you can easily track entries.
Here are some activities you can request photos for from your audience:
• A photo of you wearing your favorite team's jersey
• A photo of you and your friends watching the game
• A photo of your Super Bowl snacks
• Reaction videos if your team wins
• Pictures of your kids' outfits
• Pictures of how you dressed up your pets for the game
Image credit of @ballerinajmz on Instagram
Do you plan on leveraging the Big Game in your marketing? Let me know your ideas in the comments!