Loud, gimmicky, and crassly expensive, Super Bowl commercials have long epitomised old-school advertising. But there are signs that things are beginning to change.
Yes, at $3 million for 30 seconds the ads themselves are still pricey. But in terms of the campaigns that surround them, it seems top brands are finally waking up.

Take Budweiser. A couple of weeks before the big event, it uploaded three different commercials to its Facebook page. The brand then asked people to choose their favourite, promising to air whichever received the most votes.

Simple yet effective, this word-of-mouth strategy helped Budweiser attract 150,000 new Facebook friends—150,000 people it can learn from, market to, and use as brand ambassadors for years to come.

Like Budweiser, Google went crowdsourcing for help with this year’s ad. More specifically, it browsed its own YouTube channel to find its most popular Search Story. Parisian Love was in the lead, so it decided to run it—completely unaltered—at the Super Bowl.

Around 8 million hits later, it’s looking like one hell of a decision. The ad even inspired a few unofficial follow-ups, including this one based on the trials and tribulations of Tiger Woods. You can be sure Messrs Page and Brin won’t mind a bit; the end result is still great talkability for the brand.

And let’s not forget how Pepsi went all in, putting its entire $20m Super Bowl budget into a social media campaign. (We’ll be keeping an eye on it.)

So what can we expect from next year’s Super Bowl ads? We predict more of the same. That’s because brands are becoming increasingly aware that shouting slogans doesn’t work anymore. Instead, they need to invite customers in, listen to what they have to say, and allow conversations to start organically. It’s a brave approach—and one that still intimidates some of the biggest brands in the world—but done well, it will inspire brand loyalty in a way that traditional TV advertising never can.