Madison Avenue’s latest gimmick — teaser ads for upcoming Super Bowl commercials — are turning out to be a huge hit.
In fact, the teaser ads, which are not subject to network censors — and therefore are a bit edgier than the ads shown during the game — are drawing such a large audience and buzz that advertisers feel they are making the $3 million to $4 million Super Bowl ad buy clearly worth it.
Last year, model Kate Upton stole the pre-game hoopla with the “car wash” teaser for Mercedes-Benz.
The Upton teaser ad
While Super Bowl ads cost between $3 million and $4 million, the New Jersey-based auto company told The Post it earned the car maker $20 million in value it and as the ad garnered a result of its Super Bowl spend. The ad and the teaser combined garnered 15.4 million views through Feb. 28 last year.
“The [Super Bowl] spot paid for itself,” said Donna Boland, a spokeswoman at Mercedes.
As if marketers weren’t already knocking consumers over the head, now there’s a growing trend of releasing digital teaser spots to draw attention to Super Bowl ads.
Those digital ads allow marketers to avoid the censors and do much longer creative but the most successful efforts are also earning their keep when they garner Super Bowl size attention.
This year, Nestles’ candy brand Butterfinger rolled out a raunchy web spot featuring a well-placed pepperoni stick. Also, VW is planning its own follow-ups to its highly successful “Star Wars”-themed teaser.
“We started the teaser movement with ‘The Force,’ and it got 20 million to 30 million views,” VW spokesman Justin Osborne told The Post. “We saw people viewing it all over the world.”
Last year’s Super Bowl was watched by 108 million viewers.
“This is the one time of year everyone wants to see advertising. People are actively searching for amazing ads,” Osborne said, noting that active viewers are much more valuable than those watching passively.
Steve Parker, CEO at digital shop, LevelWing, worked on Super Bowl campaigns for tire company Bridgestone and apparel brand Gildan.
“The pre-press is equal if not more valuable than the 30-second spot,” Parker said. “ If you spend $250,000 in digital over three weeks prior and a week after, you can get two-to-three times the value.”
The one downside for viewers — the marketing is now so out of control that if you’re searching out teasers for the Super Bowl ads on YouTube, you’ll have to watch a Geico ad first.