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February 12, 2008
What You Get for $2.7 Million
• A 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house in Beverly Hills, CA.
• 2 Bugatti Veyron’s (up to $1.7 million each with a little left over for insurance and speeding tickets).
• A 30 second ad spot during last week’s Super Bowl.
For many people, one of the highlights of the NFL’s annual extravaganza is watching all of the commercials, critiquing the ads, and often wondering just what some of these companies were thinking. When you drop $2.7 million in hopes of capturing 30 seconds of viewers’ attention, you better have some deep pockets, a compelling and memorable ad, and hopefully some sort of reasoning that justifies the cost.
It’s all about branding according to many traditional ad agencies. You can’t sell many of your products or services if your customers don’t know you exist – and you won’t find a bigger consumer television audience than during the Super Bowl. Looking back on this year’s lineup, which ads do you think will generate at least $2.7 million in incremental revenue to offset their media buy?
Branding certainly has its place, and some companies have used Super Bowl ads as a springboard to market leadership. But, every year I can’t help but wonder if many of these companies wouldn’t have been better served by spending a couple million dollars on marketing designed to drive response and generate sales. Performance-based marketing may not have quite the sizzle of a Super Bowl ad, but there’s nothing like driving results and adding to the bottom line.
Posted by Tom at February 12, 2008 02:38 AM