for advertisers. on my cell phone >> they're paying a fortune to grab your attention for 30 seconds during the super bowl. >> just wait till you see our caucus. >> the white and gold dress that caused a civil war -- >> the mystery inside the taco box. >> really? >> tonight the strategy behind a $5 million super bowl ad. but first the "nightline 5." >> let's give these dayquil liquid gels and go. >> these liquid gels are new, mousse mucinex fast max, max strength and fights mucous. let's end this. >> your baby's chubby hand latches onto your fingers so hard it's like she's saying i love you. that's why aveeno's oat formula is designed for your baby's sensitive skin.

seconds. good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight we begin with the shocking crime that landed two virginia tech students behind bars. accused of kidnapping and murdering a 13-year-old girl. now we're learning new details about how they allegedly planned their horrifying step by step plot to end the girl's life with chilling detachment. abc's eva pilgrim takes us inside the case. >> i never had one of my friends die. >> reporter: she was the sweet virginia middle schooler found murdered. tonight the details of nicole lovell's short life and gruesome death coming into focus along with new concerns about the dangers of social media. >> she seems like she was a nice girl. any understanding of why they behalf made fun of her?

just because it's middle school. >> reporter: nicole faced terrible medical problems as a child. >> at the age of 10 months old, colie received a liver transplant and fought for her life. >> reporter: the scars were fading, she was older, making connections on social media. >> that's why she started going to facebook. someone to give her attention, make her feel loved. >> reporter: making that awkward transition from childhood to young adulthood and her friend says she was meeting men online. >> i found out she was dating a guy that was over the age of 18. you could tell he was way too old. >> reporter: shortly after, she says, another mysterious januaryman. january 27th, nicole climbed out her bedroom window carrying only her phone and a minion blanket. >> i have had it to right here with people suggesting that this little girl is somehow responsible for all of this. what does she know about

the girl was lured out holding on, clutching on to her binky, her minion blanket. >> reporter: the police say she snuck away to meet this man and why wouldn't she have trusted him? david eisenhower was a track star, good-looking, successful. >> i realize in the moment that i am doing things that other people wish they could be doing. >> reporter: he'd been on television. >> yet i still have goals for myself because there are people who are better than me. and i will personally not stop until i reach my peak performance. >> reporter: nicole never came back. soon almost 1,000 volunteers were searching and authorities scoured for leads until they were able to track the last messages from nicole's phone leading them to eisenhower. >> the investigation led us to 18-year-old david e. eisenhower, a virginia tech student. >> reporter: with eisenhower in custody authorities soon locate nicole's body, 80 miles away in north carolina. it's about two miles from a home

>> i'm sure that it's something nicole's family would like to know, why did she have to end up here, left in this condition, discarded in the manner she was? >> reporter: the investigation leading authorities to identify and arrest what they say is an accomplice, a friend and another student from virginia tech, natalie keepers, charged with helping eisenhower dispose of the body in these woods. >> i'm assuming that it was probably done after dark and they may have thought they were further away from the road than they actually are. because there's no lighting out here. >> reporter: prosecutors allege keepers also helped eisenhower plan the gruesome murder, plotting for weeks, they say scouting locations, and even buying tools. when police showed up to talk to keepers, prosecutors say she immediately tried to warn eisenhower, texting him "police." it was then she allegedly told fbi investigators eisenhower killed noik ankle and put her body in his lexus, keepers allegedly saying she was excited to be a part of something secretive and special. >> that's really a stunning

there is a great deal of callousness about that. she and eisenhower discussed how the murder would be committed, cutting this little girl's throat, as though they're talking about an object. >> reporter: retired fbi profiler dr. mary ellen o'toole saying this is a complicated case with multiple motives spelling disaster. >> there's synergy that came together that made this a very lethal pair. >> a very preliminary determination of the cause of death is stabbing. >> reporter: for nicole's mother, it's too much to bear. >> her favorite color was blue. nicole was a very loveable person. nicole touched many people throughout her short life. i can't do that part. >> reporter: while authorities wait for the results of an autopsy they have concluded that nicole was using a messaging app called kick to communicate with

about possibly dangerous encounters. >> i'm willing to say kick is a devil for young children. it's like a free ability to text. anything you want. parents can't see the phone numbers that are coming in and out. >> reporter: experts say many of these anonymous apps are popular with teens and predators. >> you can sign up as anybody you want to be. it really becomes a private hunting preserve for some of these pedophiles. >> reporter: here's how kik works. download the app for free, add any name and any photo, send messages, photos, and videos, and you don't even need texting service. >> parents sometimes take away these data plans thinking that, well, the child has abused it. but they only need a wi-fi signal to be ageble to communicate. >> reporter: abc reached out to kik who told us kik cooperated with the fbi for their investigation, kik cooperates with law enforcement to combat child predators anywhere in the world, even upon provision of a court order or emergency

sorted by geographic location, by school, by age. how do you keep your family safe? >> the first thing parents need to do is set ground rules. secondly, know the technology, know how the parental controls work. third, they need to talk to their kids, have ongoing conversations about safety, so that kid when it comes time makes that safe and smart decision. >> reporter: and it's not just kik. there are many other apps kids can use to hide things from their parents. blogger liz gambener showed david wright how easy it is to hide incriminating photos. >> when you open it up and i type in my password and hit the percentage sign it's a hidden photo album. >> reporter: sending photos as easy as point and click. kid swap the files in apps such as snapchat, kik, yik yak, whis per, making sharing large numbers of files fast and easy. >> kids will always be savvier

of us, that's the nature of the game. >> reporter: nicole's friend carrie said she tried to tell an adult months ago after she noticed nicole was communicating with an older man. >> i went to the officer at my school. and wrote down his name on a piece of paper and handed it to him. >> reporter: the blacksburg police department denying she alerted the officer about eisenhower saying, had a student or even nicole herself reached out to him in advance of her disappearance about anything that could cause concern, he would have act the on it through the appropriate channeledschannels. >> did you make this up? >> no. i think if he would have done something he could have seen the guys on her facebook and he could have stopped all of this. >> reporter: nicole's family filing into court wearing blue ribbons hour before her burial, mourning a daughter gone too soon. >> a preliminary hearing for eisenhower has been scheduled for march 28th. next, inside the super bowl

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it's the nfl's biggest game of the year but it's also the highest-rated show on television, making the super bowl the perfect marriage of sports and media. this year's expected to generate, get this, $377 million in advertising revenue. and while the stakes are high for the teams on the field, they

and the ad agencies across america. abc's nick watt takes us inside some of the nation's most creative minds. >> reporter: sunday night there's one battle on the field -- >> caught for the touchdown! >> reporter: men in tight pants, hard helmets. off the field in commercial breaks there's another just as intense. >> america has seen the light! >> and there's a butt in front of it! >> this behind the scenes battle is between women, men in beards and buns, working from industrial space, doodling. "madman" was then. >> this is the greatest advertising opportunity since the invention of cereal. >> reporter: this is now. in this battle deploying every weapon from amusing it girl -- >> it's not too big. like you could handle it. you used to call me on my cell

>> reporter: to canadian rappers. >> these changes don't ruin the song at all. >> reporter: recently deceased rock stars. star man >> reporter: athletes. >> you're holding it upside down. >> really? >> reporter: ugly aliens. and septuagenarian celebrities with socks on their hands. >> there are those who expect more. >> reporter: every slot costs roughly $4.8 million for the air time alone. it's up 75% in just the past 10 years. why? because over 110 million will watch sunday night. the highest-rated show on television. >> you're talking about an audience that is larger than any other audience out there. >> reporter: and then the bragging rights. >> i've never been a professional athlete but i know what it's like to be a professional marketer. raising to be on the biggest game of the year. >> reporter: the way doritos does it, competition, a $1

amateur submissions which they air sunday night. here are two of the three finalists. me and the dog the stars in this one. >> the schtick is dogs like doritos too? >> exactly, everybody likes doritos. >> competing with huge ads created by mega companies, we don't have all that access, so we've got 30 seconds to make people relate and maim peek laugh and remember it. >> relate, laugh, remember. >> yeah. >> reporter: for the ad-obsessed, youtube offers their ad blitz channel where fans can watch and vote on their favorite commercials. >> what is up, guys? >> reporter: videos from social stars like millennial ava gutowski part of the draw. >> it's about the concept. no matter if you're putting a ton of money mind it or one little blog camera, people are going to go to whatever they want to watch. >> reporter: the big dogs also leverage social media, leaking teasers, trailers, sometimes the

it's now the norm. >> when it comes to game day, if you've seen this commercial already you're going to say, wait a minute, everybody, stop, put your beers down, check this out. >> reporter: this is the david and goliath agency in l.a. >> doors will open to reveal the new optima -- >> reporter: we'll call them team kia. their walken kia spot is already racking up hits on youtube. >> what is that? >> the new kia optima. >> reporter: in manhattan, team bud light airing their offering early online. >> so far, so good. on track i would say. >> america has seen the light! >> and there's a butt in front of it! >> reporter: now to deutsche in l.a. 2011, they intentionally leaked this gem for volkswagen. and set a trend. >> why put it out there before,

>> we thought, if there's that much thrustirst and hunger for this content, just give it to them, just lean into it. so that blew up huge. then the next year, everybody was doing that. >> reporter: but this year they are team taco bell. and taking a different tack. >> the toppings would stay in better if we flipped it. >> it's become standard now for brands to drop their ads early. everything's out of the bag sometimes a week, two weeks before, you know, the spot even comes out. but this year taco bell and i think a lot of advertisers this year have chosen to hold back. i don't think as many people are showing everybody what they've done before super bowl sunday. >> you're holding it upside down. >> really? >> reporter: there are teasers. james harden really does not know what he's advertising. >> taco bell won't talk about the product they're launching until sunday. they won't show the commercial until sunday. everything's a mystery. >> i mean, how top secret can a

>> you can preorder the product, 700 people as of this morning preordered something they don't know what it is. >> that's genius advertising. you're selling something to people they don't know what it is. >> you don't know what it is but you already want to eat it. preorder now. >> do you know what it is? >> no idea. >> what can they do to a taco? >> reporter: who wins this and arguably the bigger battle sunday night? it stands to critics, sales, social media reaction, and the looks on friends' faces. >> looking around the room seeing people -- >> yeah, yeah. >> if they're actually -- >> hey, nice, you did pretty good, that's great, brad. >> that's not good. >> not good, that's the fake one. then there's, "that was good!" that's the one i'm looking for. >> i've got something for you, girl. knowledge. anywhere you want it. >> reporter: i'm no stranger to the ad game. we made this for "nightline" a year or two ago. long story as to why. anyway.

process begins, a challenge. >> i'm a very difficult client. we have a tv show called "nightline." you need to think of a super bowl commercial for our tv show. ideas, come on. you're all crazy people, throw them out. >> "nightline" is better than any other show? >> we are better at topical news but funny. >> do you want to tug at the heart strings? >> no, i don't want any schmaltzy stuff. i want belly laughs. like smutty bell -- laughs. >> if you guys were the first to create an icon outside -- nontraditional icon, like maybe a talking cat. >> reporter: stay with me. >> do you have an enemy? >> james corden. >> seth meyers and james corden. >> so take down seth meyers. >> fall asleep to us instead. >> reporter: is they nowhere near as inspiring as christopher walken with a sock. here's why. >> as much as we'd probably love to come up with a great super

"nightline" right at the table today -- >> it would take eight, nine months. >> reporter: the goal of every agency is and forever has been to upstage this. the commercial that started all this super bowl commercial battle back in 1984. apple. can anyone trump it this year? >> we shall prevail! >> reporter: schumer perhaps? >> that's why we're forming the bud light party. >> reporter: walken? >> pizzazz! >> war hawk, this is good! don't know really what it is! >> reporter: or whatever it is in that taco box. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. next, counting down to the battle for the granite state. we'll have a preview of tomorrow night's final republican presidential debate right here

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finally tonight, the race for new hampshire and the stakes couldn't be higher in the republican contest. donald trump will be front and center for their final debate moderated by our own david muir and martha raddatz. giving us a sneak peek tonight. >> hey, good evening. the excitement is mounting here at st. anselm college in manchester, new hampshire, as our abc news crew is putting the finishing touches on our debate stage. top three candidates -- donald trump, ted cruz, marco rubio --

tomorrow night and if there's one thing we can count on it's some heated exchanges. all the candidates are gunning for momentum. just ahead of the crucial new hampshire primary on tuesday. everybody wants to make their mark, survive this debate, and move forward. but it may be the last chance for some. >> thank you, martha. martha and david muir will moderate that debate tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 central time, right here on abc. it was former president george h.w. bush who said, if anyone tells you america's best days are behind her, they're looking the wrong way. thank you for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. as always we're online on our "nightline" facebook page and abcnews.com.

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