First-timers fill Super Bowl spots

Sometimes a team comes to the Super Bowl having never played one. That is also true on the advertising side of the game. And for Super Bowl XLVI, to be broadcast by NBC on Feb. 5, there will more first-time sponsors than usual.

The Super Bowl newbies include two luxury car brands, Acura and Lexus; Century 21, the real estate firm; the Dannon Co. division of Groupe Danone; the H&M retail chain, which will advertise a new line of David Beckham Bodywear underwear; and 2nd Story Software, the maker of TaxACT tax-preparation software.

The rookies' commercials will run amid dozens from marketers with extensive Super Bowl experience, among them Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Bridgestone, CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Chrysler, E-Trade, General Motors, GoDaddy.com, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mars, PepsiCo, Toyota and Volkswagen.

To try to ensure that they stand out without falling flat, the Super Bowl newcomers are emulating the veteran advertisers in developing elaborate plans to capitalize on their spots in the game, for which NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for each 30 seconds.

"We're going to have a massive social media and public relations campaign," said Sergio Fuster, senior vice president for marketing at Dannon, which will advertise a new product, Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt, with a 30-second commercial in the third quarter.

Century 21 is also sprinkling stardust on its spot, created by the Red Tettemer & Partners agency in Philadelphia. The 30-second spot, to run in the third quarter, will use Donald Trump and two athletes, Deion Sanders and Apolo Ohno, to demonstrate that Century 21 agents are "Smarter. Bolder. Faster."

"The Super Bowl comes just before the spring selling season, making it a perfect time to signal our confidence in our agents and in the American real estate market," said Beverly Thorne, chief marketing officer at Century 21.

The longtime Super Bowl sponsors are not standing pat; they are working on new approaches for their Super Bowl XLVI spots to better compete with the novelty value the first-timers may offer.

For instance, Volkswagen began a teaser campaign on its website and YouTube this week to promote a 60-second spot for the 2012 Beetle, which will reprise the "Star Wars" theme of its Super Bowl spot last year for the Passat.

Also, E-Trade and its agency, Grey New York, plan to take the popular campaign featuring the E-Trade baby, who first appeared in the 2008 Super Bowl, in a new direction. The Super Bowl commercial will depict the character interacting with people for whom an important life event — the birth of a child — spurs them to think about investing.

Another advertiser back for a fifth year in a row, Hyundai, will also refocus its efforts. Two humorous commercials created by Innocean Worldwide Americas, to run in the first and fourth quarters, will play up "the performance side of Hyundai that people don't know a lot about," said Steve Shannon, vice president for marketing at Hyundai Motor America.

The spots will use "a little bit of testosterone" to promote two sporty models, the Veloster Turbo and the Genesis Coupe R-Spec, he added, which are aimed at "younger males, first-time car buyers."