Super Bowl XLII advertisers will spend more than $135 million on advertising this February 3. The price tag for a 30-second TV spot is $2.7 million to $3 million — the highest advertising rate in Super Bowl history. Today’s marketers are looking for new ways to measure and justify this spend. Some even argue that costs have come down since 2002.
How is this possible? Ad rates aren’t plunging due to waning interest, or because viewership is fumbling. This cost-effectiveness is only applicable for a select few, those on the inside of a rising trend — the innovative use of digital direct response marketing. Folks depending solely on Madison Avenue’s over-the-top creativity and cleverness to justify their Super Bowl spend are, to be sure, paying full price.
Activating a brand by integrating digital direct response marketing with traditional advertising during the Super Bowl is the quickest and most cost-effective way to connect with and engage consumers in a more relevant, real-time, personal manner.
Launching the consumer into action during the commercial, connecting with them, and maintaining an ongoing relationship, facilitated by direct and database marketing, begins to justify the cost of each 30-second Super Bowl TV spot. By taking what’s already working for your brand, and then adding value to it by building up your response, ensures that marketers are more likely to achieve positive ROI.
A little known player in last year’s Super Bowl ad game scored a direct response touchdown. The SalesGenie.com commercial, voted the “worst” (in traditional terms) by viewers, subsequently drove more than 25,000 people to its Web site.
Super Bowl mouse potatoes can now sit with their laptop while watching the game and participate in a direct and ongoing dialogue with your brand. What’s $3 million for a Super Bowl 30-second timeslot when you can score a touchdown by engaging 2, 10 or 50 million people with the brand and promotions on your website?
Next time you see the price of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial, rest assured that the prices have come way down — but only for those marketers that have a winning game plan utilizing digital direct response.
