COMMENTARY: Super Bowl: Biggest Social Media Event Of The Year?

Were you planning to sit back and relax while watching Super Bowl XLVII? Think again. There’s a conspiracy to get you to work during the game.

It used to be television networks wanted viewers to just watch what was being offered. Instead of letting fans passively enjoy the game, CBS, NFL and all the advertisers eagerly want you to be an engaged viewer.

CBS wants you to do your own directing. The network is offering interested viewers the chance to go online to watch the game from camera angles other than the one on the air.

Since 1989, USA Today has brought together a roomful of volunteers to watch the game and rate the commercials, but that won’t happen this year. Instead, the paper wants viewers nationwide to go online to volunteer to be part of the Ad Meter panel, rating the commercials from their respective living rooms.

But no one wants you to work more than the advertisers.

Unlike audiences of so many other television programs, Super Bowl viewers are actually interested in seeing the commercials. With commercials this year costing as much as $4 million for 30 seconds, advertisers want to be sure you not only watch closely but that you interact with them.

Some advertisers, such as Doritos and Pizza Hut, actually want you to make commercials for them. Sure, they pay for the winning commercial, but they own all the content - even the spots they don’t choose to air.

Toyota wants you to tweet photos of yourself that it can include in a commercial. Pepsi has collected more than 54,000 pictures, from which it will choose less than 1 percent to include in a commercial. Auto competitor Lincoln used tweets as the basis for an ad featuring Jimmy Fallon.

Paramount Pictures wants viewers to download an app to their smartphones to enhance the advertising for the next Star Trek movie.

Viewers are “rewarded” with interactivity and exclusive content that those who merely “watch” the commercial won’t have. The interactivity will extend far beyond the commercial. At the same time, Go Daddy is trying to get you to visit its website to see content beyond its 30-second commercials.

According to Nielsen, 85 percent of mobile device owners use their gadgets while watching television at least once a month.

The industry recognizes many people will make the Super Bowl a two screen experience, and each segment wants to be sure to grab its share of the interactivity. CBS knows if you’re not on its website looking at alternate camera angles, it’s likely to lose you to a discussion on Facebook.

Be sure to get plenty of rest before the Super Bowl.

By the time the game is over, chances are you’ll be exhausted.

DOM CARISTI IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS AT BALL STATE UNIVERSITY’S DIGITAL POLICY INSTITUTE.

Opinion, Pages 11 on 02/03/2013

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