This year I watched the Super Bowl ads with a different set of eyes. I wasn’t  looking for the funniest ad or the ad with the most dogs, I was looking to see how advertisers would take advantage of the additional screens that viewers watched Super Bowl related content on. This year’s Super Bowl saw the emergence of the 2nd screen. Viewers around the world were viewing Super Bowl related content on tablets, iPads and mobile smartphones.

International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker reported that  vendors shipped a record 157.8 million smartphones in the 4th quarter of 2011 compared to 102.0 million smartphones in the 4th quarter of 2010. The 54.7% year-over-year growth was higher than IDC’s forecast of 40.0% for the quarter, and higher than the 49.2% growth in 3Q11.  Apple reported that  they sold 37.04 million iPhones in the 4th quarter of 2011, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the 4th quarter of 2011, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Mobile viewers were online as nearly one-third of the U.S. population, or 98 million people, used an app. Nielsen estimates 111 million people watched the game on TV. InMobi‘s survey of mobile users’ activity during and after the game found that nearly half (45%) spent at least half an hour engaged with their mobile device with 30% using it primarily during commercial breaks. Further evidence was reported by Verizon and AT&T who both reported higher usage of data during this Super Bowl than last’s year game.

With this many mobile viewers tuned in advertisers had many tools to extend their ads beyond the 30 seconds they purchased, yet many of the advertisers dropped the ball like Wes Wexler did in the 4th quarter.  This chart below provided by Web Strategy defined how little many of the 87 ads did to extend their brand to mobile devices.

This broke down to 32% of all Super Bowl ads had no call-to-action and an even lower amount around 11% showed their social media links. 57% of the ads linked to a microsite or URL.  More than half of the advertisers played it safe and refused to extend their brand beyond the ad and communicate with viewers on other platforms.

The opportunity that is available to any growing business is to never pass up an opportunity to create a call to action and integrate a multichannel approach to your marketing efforts. Your target market is evolving, communicating and devouring content on different platforms.

Don’t depend on one channel to satisfy your R.O.I.. If you’re using print integrate QR codes to drive traffic to a mobile website, a mobile coupon or your mobile club. Integrate mobile tools and strategies into your social media and marketing campaigns. ComScore reported in their 2011 MobilLens report that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all grew their mobile audiences by 50% in the past year and  70% of all mobile social networkers have posted a status update from their mobile devices. The Gartner Group predicts that by 2013 the number one way people will access the internet will be through their mobile devices.

If you’re looking to get started in mobile we have a slide presentation that explains the key mobile tools and how to use them along with demographics on the mobile market. You can see the presentation HERE. We also just wrote a great eBook on how to implement mobile & social media in marketing campaigns titled “The Mobile Social Guide to Great Events.” Even through the eBook was written with a focus on events, any business can use the strategies outlined in their own social media campaigns. Download the eBook HERE.

Multichannel marketing especially mobile marketing is the best way to ensure that your target market receives and interact with your message. Extend your brand’s message beyond the ad. Don’t pull a Wes Wexler and drop your marketing ball.