Dive Brief:

• Google will soon offer “Real-Time Ads” online to help marketers take advantage of trending topics in social media. 
• The ads will allow instant updates to an element of the ad such as a photo or text through Google’s AdWords tool. 
• Wix.com will use Real-Time Ads during the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, and Comcast will try them out during the Oscar broadcast. 

Dive Insight:

Google will soon help advertisers customize content to take advantage of trending topics with Real-Time Ads. The new format will permit marketers to use Adwords to change an image or text appearing in the ad to play off live events such as the Super Bowl and social-media buzz. 

Web-hosting company Wix.com will be among the first to use the new format online during the Super Bowl, though EA Sports tested the technology with end users with the release of the Madden Giferator in 2014. In the absence of a trending topic, retailers can use the updateable ads to launch a limited-time offer or flash sale, for example.

Google also announced that YouTube’s AdBlitz channel—a popular feature for eight years running—will now feature original content and teasers for brand ads in the ramp-up to the Super Bowl. Brands that debut ads online ahead of the Super Bowl get 2.2 times the views and 3.1 times the social shares of those who wait, Google says.