NFL fans are one of the most dedicated crops of consumers on the planet. Some fans will spend an entire Sunday tail-gating, buying stadium food and memorabilia, and even standing shirtless in freezing cold weather with paint on their chest to show their team loyalty. And no event is more important to an NFL fan than the game that determines this season’s champ. The Holy Grail of all Football games.

The Super Bowl.

Yet Super Bowl season isn’t just for football fans. It is for consumers to check out the latest and greatest in brand awareness. Forbes words it perfectly: Super Bowl commercials are meant to entertain and are an opportunity to sell to the largest global television audience.

On the sidelines this season; see how retailers capitalized on one of this year’s leading potential revenue generators. Here are five reasons why retailers got involved in this year’s festivities and some offensive plays retailers pulled out of the playbook to make this the most successful Super Bowl season yet.

#1: The Super Bowl is the most consumer driven event in America.  
Consumers aren’t the only ones celebrating this Super Bowl season. Retailers have reason to rejoice as well. According to a survey conducted by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, total 2013 Super Bowl revenue was estimated at over $10.1 billion. That’s a huge chunk of change, all made possible by the 179.1 million people who tuned in to view the largest televised event in America (coming to an average total of $60 per customer). 4.5 million of these viewers took advantage of promotions offered by retailers.

“With millions of people getting together to watch the game every year, advertisers plan and prepare meticulously for this annual opportunity to reach and engage viewers with bolder and more effective ways,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch. “With over a quarter of viewers saying the commercials are the most important part, it’s clear the Super Bowl isn’t just about football.”

How to leverage consumer driven events: Also use these consumer driven events to gather data on  your target audience. Offer promotions to create brand awareness and improve customer loyalty. The Super Bowl is all about brand awareness, and is the perfect time for retailers to promote their brand and gain a larger audience. With the right strategies, retailers can engage their consumers on a whole new level.

This is especially true for retailers that think on their feet. Last year during the power outage at the Superdome, Oreo was able to send out a memorable tweet with the message “You can still dunk in the dark” and a picture to go with it. The tweet went viral and scored Oreo some cheap marketing exposure thanks to the responsiveness of the company’s marketing team.

#2: Commercials command attention, especially during the Super Bowl.                                                                                                                        When we think about the Super Bowl, two things come to mind immediately: the commercials and the half-time show. Research conducted by Kanar Media suggests that approximately $1.85 billion was spent on advertising. The average price for a 30 second spot aired during the Super Bowl is around $4 million.

Television advertising allows retailers to deliver commercial messages to consumers. This is especially true when TV advertising is used in conjunction with customer-centric, social media, and mobile marketing to increase brand awareness and engage the consumer more effectively.

How to leverage advertising: If you are in the commercials, make them count; Super Bowl air time isn’t cheap. Find out who your target audience is and use either traditional advertising or customer-centric advertising, like the interactive Coke commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, to engage with them. The commercial featured showgirls, cowboys and “badlanders”racing towards the desert for a coke. When they reached the Coke, they were shocked to find they had to travel an additional amount of miles to reach their destination. Coke then urged consumers to go to their website and vote for their favorite, and the winner would be shown during the latter half of the Super Bowl. Millions of consumers responded, and the showgirls emerged victorious. Even though the growing trend is customer-centric advertising; traditional advertising can still be effective.

Engage with consumers to build brand awareness and plan your commercials out accordingly. Drive product sales by offering consumers incentives to buy your product. They are worth the money spent for air time to increase your bottom line or defend market share.

#3: The Super Bowl consumes social media.                                                                                                             Social media is a great and often low cost way to promote brand awareness. Consumers are able to share feedback on products in real time to reach across their newsfeeds. Super Bowl commercials are always a fan favorite, and retailers had better bring their A-game. Social Media allows consumers to share their favorite commercial, offer commentary on their least favorite and make or break brands in the critics’ gallery.

Retailers last year not only spent money on the commercials and air time themselves, but also spent money on creating effective strategies to engage with the audience. Doritos won big last year by hosting a contest for consumers to share ideas for a 30 second commercial, and offered cash prizes for the top 5 contestants. The winners were selected through a Facebook (News - Alert) vote, which allowed all consumers to vote for their favorites. Pepsi used Twitter to engage customers by asking viewers to submit photos of themselves in dance poses with the hashtag #PepsiHalftime and the response was overwhelming.

How to leverage social media: Make no mistake: Retailers MUST capitalize on social media to engage with consumers. Engage with consumers via social media and offer them a chance to vote for your product, share with their friends and use other gamification tactics along with social media to enhance the customer experience and improve loyalty. Give consumers the ability to engage with your brand over social media and watch your ROI skyrocket.

#4: Engage consumers with pre-Super Bowl product awareness.
For most retailers, it’s not just about game day, but the days leading up to it. Marketing your product before the big day offers consumers a chance to get excited about what your brand may do next. By using the omni-channel approach, you can reach consumers across all channels to promote your product.

Diamond Foods, Inc. saw a big jump in website trafficking and retail sales when it rolled out its pre-Super Bowl campaign last year. Sales grew at a whopping 68 percent due to concentrated efforts via mass mailers, ads in newspapers, email blasts and social media awareness. "We are very pleased by the response to our campaign, which drove a significant increase in retail sales, as well as traffic to our website and attracted more than one million consumers to view our spot on YouTube (News - Alert)," said Michael J. Mendes, president/CEO of Diamond Foods. "It appears that our message -- that Emerald nuts are a great source of natural energy -- really resonated with viewers, which is important as we begin to feature the value proposition for our brand through our new campaign."

How to leverage omni-channel retailing:                                                                                                                              Pre-Super Bowl marketing blitzes can help promote your product and give consumers a chance to engage with your brand. Engage your customers with strategic marketing campaigns guaranteed to create brand awareness. Use as many channels as possible, from in-store displays to e-mail and social media marketing. Another hot trend this year is mobile marketing. Retailers can leverage mobile capabilities by using consumers’ love of technology to spread brand awareness, create loyalty and optimize consumer experience.

#5: The Super Bowl takes gamification to a whole new level.                                                                 Consumers love games, and the Super Bowl is the perfect setting to market this growing trend.  Consumers can use their smart phones and tablets to engage with retailers to enter sweepstakes, win free overnight hotel visits and in some cases tickets to the actual game. Pre-Super Bowl marketing is important because it creates a buzz for your brand and allows consumers to become more engaged.

A perfect example of a retailer who does gamification correctly is Anheuser-Busch. Using strategic mobile campaigns they have created a presence among consumers to promote their brand. Consumers can use their smart phones or tablets to enter to win a variety of prizes, the largest being tickets to the Super Bowl. During the football season, competitive spirits run rampant and the best way to capitalize on this emotion is to offer the consumer a chance to feel like they are part of the Super Bowl in some small way. Participation creates brand awareness and boosts Anheuser-Busch’s customer engagement and mental market share.

How to leverage gamification: Enhancing the customer experience yields great results and maintains an active consumer. Offer consumers engaging loyalty programs and rewards opportunities. You can even work prizes into the actual in-game events if you are crafty about it. Football fans love games, so why not give the consumer what they want? It’s a touchdown for everyone involved.

Good luck out there beyond!