Last year the big buzz entering the Super Bowl was about Nationwide’s spot featuring aspiring rapper Kevin Federline, Britney Spears’ ex-husband, winking at his reputation as a hanger-on. This year another Spears ex, Justin Timberlake, is garnering lots of prekickoff attention for his Super Bowl ad. It features the Grammy winner performing gravity-defying stunts like jumping off moving cars to help introduce a new Pepsi program offering Amazon.com MP3 downloads. The spot has gotten buzz not just because of the stunts but also because it marks Timberlake’s first Super Bowl presence since 2004’s Nipplegate, when Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s breast during the halftime show. In fact, yesterday word even leaked that Jackson’s brother, Michael, may cameo in a Pepsi ad. Other spots receiving pregame buzz include the Budweiser Clydesdale spot, which uses a “Rocky” theme to show a horse trying to make the Anheuser-Busch team. SpotBowl, the Super Bowl commercial voting web site and blog run by Harrisburg, Pa., agency Pavone, says the Clydesdale spot has a great chance of winning public opinion polls come Monday, the day after the game. David Shoffner, SpotBowl spokesperson and public relations strategist at Pavone, talks to Media Life about which ads are getting buzz, why simply advertising in the game isn’t enough, and why SalesGenie.com is trying to make a bad ad.  

 
Aside from Bud Light, which always generates loads of pregame publicity, which spots are getting the most hype?
 
We’re not seeing the same level of hype that some of the consumer-generated spots did last year.

We’re also not seeing anything that comes close to the pre-game buzz that Nationwide’s Kevin Federline spot received, but we are hearing some talk and excitement around Pepsi’s Justin Timberlake ad.

We’re also hearing great things in certain circles about Anheuser-Busch’s 60-second Clydesdale spot this year. That one is going to combine the right amount of sentiment and humor, and we expect it to be the favorite to win a poll like SpotBowl.
 

What sort of boost can advertisers expect for their product following a Super Bowl ad? Is it more about product recognition or driving actual sales?
 
A spot can make people laugh or recite a catch phrase around the water cooler the next day. But if people don’t remember the brand name or the product, the company has essentially wasted $2.7 million.

These days advertisers can’t let the Super Bowl spot stand alone. They have to support it with pre-game marketing campaigns and tie the spot into a larger, overall marketing effort in order to really maximize their investment.
 

Studies have shown that movies running trailers during the Super Bowl tend to draw huge grosses. Is that simply a matter of studios putting their best prospects in the game, or is there a Super Bowl effect at the box office?
 
The types of movies we see advertised in the Super Bowl are pre-destined to be blockbusters, so it’s unlikely that the Super Bowl has too much effect on overall ticket sales.
 

Go Daddy once again claimed to have a provocative ad denied by Super Bowl censors, something that seems to happen each year. How much free publicity does it reap from this move?
 
In the first few years it worked really well for them, and it still does. A big part of maximizing your investment--especially for a company like GoDaddy, who doesn’t have a big advertising budget like Coke or Budweiser--is getting people to talk about your ad before and after the game.
 

Your blog reports that SalesGenie.com is purposely trying for another poorly reviewed ad, after actually gaining buzz last year because its spot was so poor. What's your opinion of that strategy?
 
It should be interesting.

They’re obviously going after the buzz factor again, and there’s always equity in creating a spot that stands in contrast to the rest of the pack, whether it’s a serious spot amongst a bunch of humor (in the case of the White House anti-drug message this year) or a bad ad among the best of the best.

Last year's big trend in Super Bowl advertising was user-generated content. What will this year's be?
 
This year we’re seeing more advertisers using the internet as a bridge between the TV spot, the brand and the consumer, from online contests to determine the brand’s Super Bowl ad content, to teaser campaigns prior to the game, to entire web sites (in the case of BudBowl.com) dedicated to a company’s Super Bowl ads. 

So who's going to win the game?

I always bet on Bud. They’re able to combine humor and sentiment every year and always have four or five spots in the top 10. This year I’m looking forward to their 60-second Clydesdale spot. I’ve talked to a representative from Anheuser-Busch recently and they agree that spot is their strongest contender this year.

As far as the football teams … gotta go with the Patriots.