TV is dead. That's what I've been told. It was killed several years ago by the internet and TiVo. It's being killed right now by Netflix and YouTube. And it'll be killed again soon by the iPad and whatever comes after that. But if TV is dead, why are so many smart marketers paying nearly 3 million bucks for 30 seconds on the Super Bowl? Have they gone mad?
Well, maybe not. In fact, at $2.7 million, a Super Bowl ad can be the single biggest bargain in advertising today. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it's risky. But when done right, there is nothing that even comes close to the immediate, overnight impact the Super Bowl can have on a brand. And when done right, those 30 seconds on the game are only a small piece of the bigger story.
The Super Bowl is America's last campfire. It's the only event left that we, as a nation, still watch together. And all those emotions you feel during the game, and during the ads, are being shared by 106 million other people at the exact same time. Over 1/3 of all Americans watched the game this year, 50% being women. In this way, the Super Bowl is an anomaly in today's fractured media landscape. A throwback to the lunar landing in 1969, when over half of America was glued to the set at the same moment.
But it's more than just huge viewership numbers. Shared experiences make for better stories. Period. Which is why the actual 30 seconds you're buying is worth its weight in gold. Because that 30 seconds also buys you an entre into the stories that surround the game. Not just the water cooler conversations the next day, but the two weeks before the game, and the one week after that are a PR extravaganza. And surprisingly, the advertising players tend to get almost as much attention as the football players. So the brands are in fact an integral part of the bigger shared story. And for that brief window, everyone is paying attention - and talking about it. Being able to capitalize on this groundswell of attention is what can make $2.7 million a brilliant investment.
Easier said than done, of course. There are many Super Bowl advertisers, and not all of them make their money back. It takes months of meticulous planning to create a media and PR plan that takes full advantage of that 3-week window. One thing's for sure, you need a great spot. That's what makes all the free PR possible. But you also need smart ways of using some form of your Super Bowl content across all Medias to amplify the message. Maybe you tease the ad beforehand in the press. Maybe drive to your website for behind the scenes, or use YouTube to maximize the afterlife of the content. It's not quite the exact science of cost per click. It's more like good, old-fashioned brand building while using all the new school digital tools at your disposal to maximize reach and buzz. Build it, and the ROI will come.
Take E*Trade. A couple years ago the baby puked on the Super Bowl, and the next day more new accounts opened at E*Trade than in any other day in the company's history. This year was even bigger. Since the game a week ago, E*Trade has been featured by over 1,100 different media sources, reaching more than 768 million people. And that's all unpaid editorial content, not "advertising." So people watch it with a less cynical eye. In the last few weeks Jon Stewart, ESPN, Good Morning America, The Colbert Show and The O'Reilly Factor have all hyped up E*Trade. For free.
Not to mention the firestorm a great Super Bowl ad can start online. Influential bloggers love talking about Super Bowl spots. Pop culture sites pick up the content and news sites feature it. YouTube, AOL, Yahoo and Hulu all have their Super Bowl ad contests that not only get millions of views, but create great dialogues about the brands. And all of this doesn't cost a dime. It's all part of the package. The E*Trade baby has been viewed more than 30 million times on YouTube alone. And other brands
can probably tell similar stories.
TV is not dead. Especially come Super Bowl Sunday. There's nothing else like it in today's incredibly scattered media environment. A huge, engaged audience is so much less common now than it was when there were only a couple media platforms and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. And though every year we hear the "shocking" stories of what advertisers are paying for 30 seconds on the Super Bowl, the smart ones keep buying. And what they're buying is so much more than 30 seconds. It's a seat at America's last campfire. Where, if you have a really good story to tell, the entire nation will gather around and listen.