The 2.6 Million Gamble: Superbowl Commercials

Widely regarded as America’s greatest national past time, the Super Bowl is a mammoth sporting carnival! Millions of Americans and many around the world are estimated to watch the Big Game. Every year it gets bigger, the 41st edition commanded a viewership of 1 billion, says certain stats.

A prime reason for its universal acceptance, as the national party time, is due the fact that, fans and non-fans equally, engage in the fun. While the real fans grunt and groan riveted to the screen all the while, everyone else is hanging around in the kitchen helping themselves…and when it’s the time for commercials, even they rush to the big screen!
Strange, eh?

‘Superbowl TV commercials’ are an undeniable part of this annual tradition. Its anybody’s guess that Marketers would get excited by this whole commotion and sense another opportunity to sell, but barely could one foresee that it would come to be regarded as the informal Oscars of TV advertising!

All the attention comes with a price..a pretty hefty one, at that.
2.6 million for a 30 second spot!!…

The wisdom of a 2.6 million investment on a 30 second spot has been questioned over and over again. An interesting article in Forbes.com suggests alternate modes of using this money.

Some of their alternatives:

· One could run 10 full page insertions in leading daily papers in each of the top 10 markets!
· Two giant hoardings could be erected at Times Square, New York for a whole year !
· 2.6 million would fund, 1.7 million mailers sent directly to potential customers or 52 million e-mails . [ No expert on this, but if I assume you share the disdain I have for email marketing, only a knuckle-head would spend such money this route]

Check the link:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/01/30/super-bowl-advertising-tech-media-cx_lr_0130superbowlad_slide_2.html,

I personally believe, the undivided attention of a billion pair of eyes, is worth the effort. (‘undivided attention’ would be an overkill!, football fans are known for their short attention spans) Rarely, do we see viewers rushing to the TV while a commercial is being aired!
Add to this the word of mouth which follows, the Superbowl Ads voting and the millions of re-runs on the web, you have your money’s worth of visibility.


[ Though the ‘audience reach’ is high for a Superbowl Ad, the other dimensions of Advertising effectiveness, is not equally positive.
Also note that, as near everyone, is watching the game/commercials, you never get to send a focused message to your targeted audience. Refer Myers Five Dimensions of Advertising Effectiveness ]

This tremendous marketing opportunity has been historically used by the Big ones or the ambitious few. Coke, Fed ex, Budweiser, Bud Light and so on have been the front runners.
Perhaps, the most known success has been for Apple, with their ‘ 1984 Ad’ which has since then become part of Advertising folklore.



Along with some great successes we have many well known failures too.Due to the High stakes involved, a faux-paux would mean catastrophe!!.

For any other TV Ad, at any other occasion, care needs to be given on the Content, the objective, the motivation, the message and the Cognitive/Affect/Experience aspects. While all this, do apply to a Superbowl Ad too, nothing should transcend the ‘Ambition’ and ‘Entertainment’ value.
You can tell viewers on your sales promotions or product benefits some other time, a Superbowl should be mainly for ‘Brand Image Reinforcement’.

..and about the Ads this year, I personally felt, we did not get to see any outstanding ones.


The 2007 Superbowl Ads can be viewed at : http://www.youtube.com/superbowl


Of the ones, I feel the ‘Budlight’ series was effective. I especially like the Ad on the hitch hiker. The axe being a ‘bottle-opener’ was awesome!!
At my office, I noticed the Budlight Classroom Ad, getting lot of giggles, though I watched the Ad somewhat stoic ( or was it because the Indian with his terrible accent, offended me )





I felt, the GM Robot dream Ad was quite good and it did convey the intended message well. Some say that the Ad reminded them of the mass-fires and shutting down of plants and thus may back-fire! Well, I am not sure..



The Snickers Ad was quite funny, especially the way the mechanic guys freak-out when they realize they had an accidental kiss.(I promise, I’m not homophobic) However, The next time while I was at the vending machine deciding which bar to take, I decided to give Snickers, a skip… Sweaty men kissing and the caption ‘Most satisfying’ (!!) got me confused, I believe.



Sprint’s ‘Connectile Dysfunction’ and the Snapple Green Tea Ads were hillarious.





I loved the Fed-Ex caveman Ad last year, but the ‘Moon office’ this time was quite disappointing, The Fed-Ex Ground shipping Ad, probably was effective, but drab..
the Giant Robot inspired Garmin Ad, was primitive!!









The Coke Videogame Ad is one of my all time favorites, but i have seen it plenty times before. The new 'Superbowl' Happiness factory Ad, on the otherhand look creepy..the happy little creatures seemed as if there were some Micro-organisms in the drink!! ..psbttt..






My take:

All Publicity might not be Good Publicity, especially if they spell your name right but get your intent wrong ! ;)