Well it’s safe to say that Fox TV will be the biggest, if not one of the biggest winners. NFL viewership was off the charts this season and with the bad weather much of the U.S. experienced this winter more people have taken to watching pro football like never before. With a :30 spot going for close to $ 3 million this year Fox is poised to have unprecedented Super Bowl success . Even the cast of ‘Glee’ is going to be in a much anticipated spot.
Doritos will assume its rightful place, as will GoDaddy.com with the addition ‘Biggest Loser’ star Jillian Michaels joining Danica Patrick for a spot that leads viewers to the web to finish the ‘mystery’.
The beer wars will be in force, but Denny’s will be absent which I find interesting after two consecutive Super Bowls promoting its offer of a ‘Free Grand Slam’ Breakfast. I blogged about those spots a couple of times but we never did learn whether or not they were successful. Until now. Denny’s has a new CMO Frances Allen who has decided to move away from advertising on the Super Bowl and instead invested in focus groups learning more about Denny’s customers and how they view the brand and what Denny’s can do to better satisfy what their customers want. In fact in Denny’s new campaign – not to be seen on the Super Bowl – http://nyti.ms/hgQXXw – Denny’s ‘Diner’ concept is highlighted.
There will be the normal animal type spots (think, Bridgestone and Career Builder), maybe a baby or two (think E-Trade) and car ads from, Kia, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, GM and Chrysler to name a few.
What you won’t see are direct response ads. In fact the last true DR ad was from Sales Genie in 2008 and while some people were offended it was very successful but apparently not enough for them to do it again since. The opportunity to have 100 million people respond to your ad directly by using a phone number or web URL should surely be more tempting shouldn’t it?
More than 100 million people around the world will tune into watch two of the NFL’s most venerated franchises, the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers do battle on the field. My New York Jets were sadly eliminated (again) in the conference finals two weeks ago. So while contest itself is of mild interest I will enjoy chicken wings, chili and my favorite beverage and watch the ads (and Fergie with the Black Eyed Peas at halftime).
What I also wonder is why our marketing group would ever recommend to one of our clients to invest $ 3 million to buy time on the Super Bowl for 30 seconds. For many of our clients $ 3 million more than is an entire year’s marketing budget. But I’d love our team to have the opportunity to make that decision sometime.
Do you leave the room to get something to eat or take a break during the Super Bowl ads? Or during the game itself?
The Way I See It - Mark Kolier 
Since I am in the social media marketing business as well, I often watch the commercials (although I do head to the fridge a time or two). We agree, $3M is not inexpensive. This year we decided to go the social media route and we came up with an online parody of Go Daddy’s "racy" ads – to try and connect through our customer’s sense of humor, but to also highlight our serious business messages too. Take a look, and let us know if you think we hit the mark. http://bit.ly/gogranny
LikeLike
Thanks Shashi for the read and the comment the spot is hilarious! Nice job casting Cloris too. I had not seen it yet. You guys nailed it. The only thing I’d like to know would be if the Network Solutions cost is the same as Go Daddy’s for plain website registration? It’s clear that the additional services and experience of THE original are far in excess of the competition. About time you guys made some noise! Kudos.
LikeLike
Mark, I find it hard to believe that we will be having this conversation in 5 years. Truly the only reason that SB ads cost so much is because of the great work that the NFL has done to push the ads…and making them must see TV…as much as the game itself. Whomever did that PR work about 15 years ago…give or take…deserves some kind of award. Because there used to be just one decent ad that had the talk after the game…now it is lead up, during the game, and even spots on GMA the next morning.
I for one however think we are seeing the demise of the SB ad. I think the VW “The Force” ad shows exactly where this is going. That was leaked several days before the game…and it out-hyped all the others. Look for more of this next year…and slowly the departure of the big spend for the actual few seconds of the SB.
The world is digital — there is little reason to watch the SB to see the ads when they are available some many other places…which makes that ad buy much more less appealing
LikeLike
Thanks for weighing in Chris but I’m not sure I agree that the future is bleak for Super Bowl ads. It’s one of the last things that 100 million people do together at the same time. People want to be entertained and despite the fact that this year’s Super Bowl ads were among the weakest lineup I’ve ever seen people actually look forward to them. Yes leaks will occur but the opportunity to message to 100 million people will be too enticing for many years to come.
LikeLike
Mark — I didn’t mean to suggest that the SB ads would go away — but I do think that the cost will deminish. We have seen several examples of it over the years — and PETA does a great job at driving PR without every buying a single SB ad. With so many other avenues to see the SB ads, or the too racy for the SB ads — there has got to be a diminishing return on the investment. So spending 3 million just can’t sustain itself.
LikeLike
Understood Chris. Interesting thought that possibly the ads will be come less expensive – it may take another economic downturn for that to happen but I do agree that it is more likely than not.
LikeLike
Showing my age, but I still remember the great Apple 1984 theme ad in the Superbowl, shown just once. Powerful image.
But actually from a China perspective, 200 million eyeballs doesn’t seem that much.
LikeLike