SECRET KICKOFF
HYPE OVER SUPER BOWL ADS HITS FEVER PITCH
By HOLLY M. SANDERS
NEW YORK POST BUSINESS

January 28, 2008 -- Before viewing CareerBuilder's two Super Bowl spots, reporters had to sign a three-page confidentiality agreement promising not to reveal anything aside from the "overall theme" of the ad ahead of the Feb. 3 game.

The jobs site is so zealous about protecting its pricey ads that the document spells out specific scenes that can't be referenced in pre-game coverage, including, but not limited to, the opening, middle and ending scenes.

"If you give away too much ahead of time it could soften the impact," said Jennifer Sullivan Grasz, CareerBuilder's head of communications. "Our strategy is to give enough of a flavor without giving away the punch line."

(Hint: In one of the spots, titled "The Queen of Hearts," a woman can't muster the confidence to quit her job, so her heart literally does it for her.)

CareerBuilder isn't the only Super Bowl advertiser to trot out the "nondisclosure agreement." Secrecy is something of a tradition among Super Bowl marketers, who believe they need the element of surprise to grab viewers' attention.

"Historically, a lot of the Super Bowl ads have relied on humor," said Carolyn Crafts, vice president of marketing for Cars.com, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser.

"There is a sense that the power of the joke the first time through carries the day."

Cars.com is among the companies that plan to release "teaser" spots - eight-to-10-second snippets - this week to drum up awareness of the ad without revealing the ending.

Last year, Nationwide Insurance made the counterintuitive decision to cast Britney Spears' ex, Kevin Federline, in a humorous spot and release the full-length version before Super Bowl Sunday.

The move resulted in a ton of free publicity - $23 million, according to the company's calculations - and more than 1 million downloads of the ad on the company's Web site.

"There were a few people in the industry and internally who felt we were doing a disservice by releasing the ad before the game," said Steven Schreibman, Nationwide's advertising vice president. "But we felt all long it made good marketing sense."

Although Nationwide's success would seem to refute the notion that stealth is the only way to get people to sit up and take notice, Super Bowl marketers are falling back on secrecy as their strategy this year.

The idea of secrecy is even being used as a marketing gimmick. Anheuser-Busch, which owns Budwieser and Bud Light, is touting a "secret" spot that will only be available to those who have submitted a cellphone number and text their rating of the brewer's Super Bowl ad during the game.

holly.sanders@nypost.com