Ford Motor Company believes social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can gain them greater word-of-mouth opportunities within their target audiences for less money than Super Bowl ads.

“Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are,” says Jim Farley, Ford’s marketing chief.

But why are companies just realizing this now? That is true, but when you make new friends, you don’t forget the old.

Has last year’s announcement that PepsiCo Inc. would no longer pay for Super Bowls ads trickled down because of budget constraints or have they created a new case study for their advertising efforts (or lack thereof)? (more…)