More ways than ever for big game watchers to vote on ads

When the biggest broadcast ad event of the year airs on Lord's Day, a large figure of online players ranging from YouTube to Nielsen will be at the ready with user-enabled voting to ascertain the best and worst of the 30-second spot lot.

AOL will run its sixth annual Super Lord's Day Ad Poll with Verizon attached as a patron, allowing spectator to vote on their favourite spots. Video alpha dog YouTube will reprise its 2007 ad vote effort with a special channel at YouTube.com/adblitz. And sociable networking site MySpace has leaped in with a "Fans of the Super Bowl" ad screening and vote section.

vote is not all about the mega-sites however. Ad research stalwart Nielsen has invited viewers to weigh in on its experimental HeyNielsen.com sociable networking site. Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online Strategic Services and ClickZ columnist, who is overseeing the Super Bowl ad rating program.

"I think 2007 is the year people took multitasking to a whole new level, and while they are observation the Super Bowl they are one click a way from a message forum or blog," he said. "We're in this new age of conversation and Super Bowl ads have ever generated word of mouth, but the online elements put the word of mouth on steroids."

The most prolific Super Bowl 2008 advertizer isn't wait for spectator to log onto their computing machine to vote on their favourite spots. Anheuser-Busch has invited consumers to use their Mobile River devices to vote on their favourite of the brewery's six spots during the game. The handheld voting attempt is an enlargement a similar program the beer maker tried last year, when people were invited view a "secret" ad as a wages after the game, according to Tim potato, senior manager digital selling for Anheuser-Busch. The vote feature is part of A-B's Bud Bowl promotion.

Murphy said 82 percent of those who registered to vote did so last year, noting 21- to 27-year-olds carry a mobile device with them at all times. " The creative drives the outcome," he said. "It gets back to the cool factor and the young adult consumer. To be able to sit and view something and instantly react to what you just saw, it's highly appealing to me."