AfterMath Q&A: What’s So Super About Super Bowl Ads?
Every year, millions of Super Bowl viewers play amateur marketing critic, giving buffalo sauce-stained thumbs-ups and -downs to TV spots that represent billions of dollars in ad spending. But are these ads worth it? With the big day fast approaching, we asked our Executive Director/Connections, Mike Pocci, about the risks and rewards for brands planning to tackle a Super Bowl spot.
Just How Expensive Is It?
Up to $7 million for a :30 spot. The cost has continued to increase each year.
$7 Million?! Why So Expensive?
It’s mainly due to the sheer number of viewers that the Super Bowl draws. It’s unparalleled when you look at any other event throughout the year. Essentially, when you buy ad time, you’re buying an audience and the Super Bowl has the largest single-event audience across all media.
Are Those Costs Even Fair?
To some, yes. To others, not at all. It’s really about whether the big spend is a sensible use of money for your brand, and that depends on what you want to accomplish. If you’re trying to cast a wide net and reach a very broad audience, then you might be able to justify a multimillion-dollar buy. Also, consider the audience of nearly 100 million people watching and how much you’re paying per viewer. From that perspective, paying a nickel per viewer seems pretty reasonable.
Still, it’s important to remember that not all those people will be watching or interested in your message. If you have a very specific product for a niche audience, then it probably isn’t the right move. There are ways around the exorbitant costs, though. For example, you could regionalize your message so that you’re only paying for coverage in a local market, or even look into pre-game spots, which will still get your message in front of a large audience at a fraction of the cost.
Have There Been Any Changes in Super Bowl Viewing in Recent Years?
With the continued usage of streaming TV and over-the-top (OTT) media consumption, people are watching the Super Bowl through a variety of different methods. We’ve also seen a huge increase in multimedia usage during the game as people interact with friends, family and even brands on their smartphones and other connected devices around the house.
So Does Anybody Just Sit and Watch the Football Game Any More?
Well, yes. In some ways, not much has changed at all. The Super Bowl is one of the only events left that draws such a massive audience who watches in real time. It’s still a live event. People want to see it live, and advertisers know that. Fox was already 95% sold out of its ad inventory for this year’s Super Bowl back in September, and the max 30-second ad cost has gone up nearly 8% year-over-year, which speaks volumes about the size of the audience and the desire to reach them during one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
What also continues to be unique about the Super Bowl is that instead of perpetuating advertising’s common stigma, people actually anticipate and care about the ads, which can make your message that much more effective.
What Tips Would You Give an Aspiring Super Bowl Advertiser?
To make a lasting impact, it helps to be not only clever and creative but also topical and aware of real-time trends and current events; this goes not just for TV but all types of media, since people are often using social media on their phones or other devices during the game.
In addition to keeping your creativity sharp, it’s also important to think about how else you can reach Super Bowl viewers even outside of advertising during the Super Bowl itself. Pre-game spots are certainly an option, and while the viewership is nowhere near the level of in-game spots, there’s still a hefty audience to be reached. And if the spots are regionalized, brands can really save some money and still reach a large portion of the Super Bowl audience.
But there are other methods of targeting Super Bowl viewers without paying exorbitant amounts of money, such as connecting with them on social media in real time during the Big Game, or even serving them digital ads by building custom audience groups with automatic content recognition (ACR) and targeting them on various connected devices, as Simpli.fi has recently started doing. Today, there are myriad ways to reach many specific subsets of the massive Super Bowl audience more cost-efficiently than ever before.
To keep your brand on its toes, work with AfterMath and create impactful experiences that drive true results.
For more information, contact Mike Pocci at 330-472-9774 or mpocci@teamaftermath.com.