How PR Played a Huge Role in the Super Bowl

Now that the big game has come and gone (blackout and all), football fans are only waiting for the next season to begin. However, behind the scenes, there are likely already plans and strategies for next year’s Super Bowl. Beyond the glitz, glamour, and expensive commercials there is an enormous PR machine at work.

Public relations firms in New York city are tasked with one primary task when everything is boiled down: dissect the fanfare around the Super Bowl and find a way to manipulate it just enough so that the product or client they are working with becomes not only relevant, but interesting to a large part of the Super Bowl audience.

Of course, the way in which this is done these days is evolving rapidly. This year’s Super Bowl was all about social media as a form of marketing–something the folk at Oreo apparently not only know, but have learned to capitalize on in record time. People are still talking about the brilliant marketing and PR team behind the Twitter-based ad Oreo released during the 3rd quarter blackout.

This brings up another issue PR firms need to be aware of. When it comes to creating a commercial or any other sort of message for the Super Bowl, the end result isn’t necessarily netting more sales; creating water-cooler talk is just as important. With such a stage to display your brand, you need to find a way to creatively cement your name into the minds of the audience.

Lastly, another thing PR firms in New York City are quickly realizing is that splashing a webpage on your commercial isn’t going to get the job done. People are now looking for Facebook handles and Twitter hashtags.

It’s obvious that any PR firm that hopes to ever have success with a client during the Super Bowl needs to be able to evolve quickly, based on consumer expectations. Take a look at your own firm or, if you’re searching for a PR firm, what you want in a firm, and make sure these bases are covered.

Read more from Ronn Torossian:

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