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1 Second Ad
Yesterday we discussed some of the economics behind a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl and we noted that the real value of advertising during the big game comes both from capitalizing on the buildup before the game and the follow-through on the campaign after the game.
While I didn’t actually see their spot during Super Bowl XLIII, MillerCoors Company has done exactly this. Ads running in the days before the game talked about how their product, Miller High Life was a beer that stood for high quality at a high value. The main character, a delivery man named Wendel ponders how in tough financial circumstances, companies can blow $3,000,000 for a 30-second commercial and comments that all Miller High Life needs is one second.
And with that, a campaign was born – one that revolved around just ONE one-second ad played sometime during the second half of the game. The ad itself was the centerpiece, but was surrounded by viral promotions on both sides of the big game. Not only did the creative media buy garner tons of news coverage and word-of-mouth promotion for High Life, but MillerCoors also created an interactive website with other versions of the one-second ad, a link to get some “pretension-free gear” and an interactive diagram showing some of the other things you can buy with $3,000,000. Did you know that for $3 million you could buy 3 40’ semi trailers full of butter? Me neither, but now we’re both in the know.
Visit the site HERE. We love the campaign in concept, but as interactive designers we can’t help but to wonder why they didn’t make it easier to both link to individual videos within the site as well as to add a feature allowing users to forward the site to their friends.
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The Big Question About The Big Game
Today, the rest of the ad world is contemplating who was the big winner amongst the advertisers in this year’s Super Bowl. We thought we’d take a different approach and discuss a question that has become even more important these days with the existence of the worldwide economic crisis: Does it make any economic sense for a brand to invest in commercial airtime during the Super Bowl?
Let’s consider the facts. Based on Super Bowl XLII’s viewing statistics, about 97,500,000 people watched the big game (although Wikipedia says as many as 148,300,000 watched at least some of the game). At a cost of around $3,000,000 per 30-second spot this year, this translates into a cost per thousand (CPM) of about $31 (And that does NOT take into account production costs, which can send that number sky-high).
On the surface, $31 to reach 1,000 people itself isn’t necessarily a bad number. You have to consider, though, that you’re NOT reaching a highly targeted demographic during the Super Bowl. It’s an event that attracts men, women, children, teens, retired people, working people, etc., etc. So if you’re selling something that everyone likes, you might be fine, but if you’re advertising a highly specialized product or service that only appeals to a segment of the audience you might be spending a whole lot more money to reach the people you’re targeting. The fact of the matter is, the Super Bowl can be a super-smart move if increasing awareness is your marketing strategy. E-Trade and GoDaddy.com are two examples of companies that, like their ads or not, have benefited greatly from the exposure they’ve received from Super Bowl advertising. I’m not convinced, though, that companies like Coca-Cola and Budweiser that already have massive brand awareness are getting their money’s worth by spending money in the tens of millions of dollars at a time.
What do you think?
Either way, there are ways for these companies to capitalize on their Super Bowl investment. One of the best ways is to introduce a viral marketing component of the campaign that complements the Super Bowl creative. Take, for example, the Careerbuilder.com ad, which was one of my favorites, and one of the most well-timed considering that more than 100,000 people lost their jobs last week. They ran a great ad that discusses the many warning signs that it might be time to sign on to Careerbuilder.com to look for a new job. It was hilarious. Now, imagine if every month they released a new video on the Internet with a funny, new warning sign. Or even invited consumers to submit their own scenarios in order to win a grand prize. Pushing new content out to consumers is a great way to extend the life of the campaign, and ensure that the money spent isn’t spent in vain.
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