Verizon Experiential Super Bowl 50 Work Inc #Minute50 Giveaway, Livestream & On-Site Ads & Experiences

For Super Bowl 50, NFL telecoms partner Verizon’s activation opened with a nationwide #Minute50 promo offering customers exclusive opportunities to gain access to all things Super Bowl and culminated with a dynamic Super Bowl City experience and at-game experience programme.

Its #Minute50 customer giveaway programme, which began on 24 January and ran until 7 February, rewarding Verizon clients each time the clock hits .50 (for example 6:50, 7:50, 8:50 etc).

The giveaway was promoted through both digital, social and traditional platforms – including football-themed spots.

Prizes included everything from free data and NFL merchandise, to once in a lifetime player meet-and-greets (including eclectic experiences like cheese tasting with New York Jet Nick Mangold.

and game tickets for both Super Bowl 50 and 51.

To enter customers simply needed to text ‘Minute 50’ to the number ‘502016’, or enter online at the campaign’s website an through the course of the campaign Verizon will hand out 336 rewards in total.

The campaign was endorsed by NFL athlete ambassadors and social influencers – such as Jay Walker, Rashad Jennings and JJ Watt.

Another strand of its national Super Bowl activity saw Verizon give its customer access to the Big Game itself through the NFL Mobile app – which live streams the game itself, offers up-to-date stats, replays and even commercials for all Verizon users at no additional charge

Verizon also brings the game to life in go90 by live streaming the game through NFL Mobile on go90 for Verizon Wireless customers.

This is the fifth consecutive year that the Super Bowl is live streamed on the net and on mobiles – spanning CBSsports.com, CBS apps, connected TVs and tablets and Verizon’s nascent mobile-TV service go90.

Meanwhile, Verizon turned down its opportunity to run an in-game TV spot on official broadcaster CBS and instead focused on a local, ground game programme around the San Francisco Bay area.

This activation element was spearheaded by its title sponsorship of the official ‘Super Bowl City presented by Verizon’ – which offered an all-star experience throughout the entire Super Bowl Week.

Within the space was the brand’s focus point, the Verizon Access Zone featuring ‘Game Winner’ (an interactive and immersive experience that places fans in the game for a chance to throw a game-deciding pass), plus a station featuring NFL Mobile content on go90, as well as charging stations and a ‘Switching Station’ for those looking to switch to Verizon and a #Minute50 wall showcasing prizes, winners and a countdown clock.

Before the game Verizon also staged concerts at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco and also streamed them on Go90 Live.

The ground game also spanned a major outdoor ad push that even included erecting a massive poster on the side of a building that broke the city’s planning code.

‘The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of sporting events and this Super Bowl 50 celebration makes the build up to the game even bigger, so we’re making sure that Verizon’s activation programs and platforms provide our customers with unprecedented access and experiences – far better than any other network can provide,’ explains Verizon CMO John Nitti.

‘With our Better Matters approach and promise, we constantly raise our own bar to make being a part of our network reliable, fun, seamless and just plain better.’

Verizon, as the NFL’s official telco, also set-up Super Bowl 50’s network.

Comment

It seems that there is an increasing focus on on-the-ground, at-event Super Bowl brand experiences.

The Super Bowl is the most TV-centric annual awareness event in the USA, so obviously it is a serious decision – especially for an official NFL sponsor – not to run ads during the live in-game telecast.

Especially one who’s competitors, particularly T-Mobile, are advertising directly against Verizon during the Big Game.

Indeed, T-Mobile’s multi-spot, humour-led work, themed around how big companies can ruin things and mislead consumers, features a corporate suits enforcing restrictions on the creative process.

While Drake cheerfully promises they ‘won’t ruin the song at all’ in an indirect reference to he restrictions placed on offerings from T-Mobile’s competitors,

the Steve Harvey fronted spot is a direct ambush of Verizon’s ‘Colored Balls’ which T-Mobile and Sprint are officially challenging the legitimacy of.

In an attempt to respond to T-Mobile in-game, Verizon’s Super Bowl war room social team responded with

Still waiting to see T-Mobile’s new ad? Maybe it’s because you have T-mobile. #getabetternetwork https://t.co/BD4FLZbd3T

— Verizon (@verizon) February 8, 2016

Which Verizon responded to in what emerged as a bickering brand Twitter Big Game battle – but do consumers really care about this kind of conversation?

After all, the audience is so vast that it offers an unprecedented opportunity to get a message out to the biggest national audience, so for years many marketers (both sponsors, advertisers and ambushers) have seen the Super Bowl primarily as an ‘awareness’ opportunity.

But it is also, unequivocally, an experiential event like no other.

So focusing on one-on-one consumer experiences is a sensible strategy.

Especially for an official league partner who has already run awareness-led leverage programme throughout the season.

For months leading up to the big game, brands use their Super Bowl sponsorships to drive engagement with promotions, giveaways, meet-n-greets, hospitality suites and other one-on-one approaches for consumer involvement.

One of the brands at the top of the list of official Super Bowl branded experiences is Super Bowl City presented by Verizon: a free fan village that will close down San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza for eight days before the game.

The list of brands creating state-of-the-art experiential programs and environments at Super Bowl 50 is a long one and includes:

‘Fan Energy Zone powered by SAP’:

A branded experience featuring interactive, motion-capture games developed through a partnership with Britelite Immersive and Helios Interactive (using SAP’s design-led approach and leverages the SAP Hana Cloud Platform).

‘The City Stage presented by Levi’s’:

An event series that revolves around 35 free musical performances between 30 January and 7 February starring big names like Alicia Keys, Aloe Blacc, OneRepublic, The Band Perry, Matt Nathanson and Chris Isaak.

‘The NFL Experience driven by Hyundai’:

Takes place at Moscone Park is a paid interactive theme park includes games and opportunities to meet players (Hyundai also sponsored the 2015 NFL Kickoff, a series of concerts and festivities that launched five months before the Super Bowl).

Pepsi Kola House:

Pepsi also previewed its Kola House: an experimental kola bar, restaurant, lounge and event space (for culture, music, art, style, film and sport) in San Francisco (prior to the space’s major launch in New York which will offer a flagship brand experience).

Links

Verizon #Minute50 Website: