Super Bowl Sunday is nearly upon us. That's gratifying on so many levels.You're a sports fan? Check. You're awed by outsized spectacles? Check. Got some kind of connection to Baltimore and/or San Francisco and/or New Orleans? Check, check and check.
You're intimately immersed in the advertising industry? Che — wait a minute...you're probably not, are you? Those other 364 days, you probably don't consider yourself a real big fan of advertising. More's the pity.
Ah, but come that blessed Sunday, you find yourself on our team. You not only watch the Super Bowl commercials (and enjoy them, and talk at length about them at work on Monday), you analyze and dissect them. You track the per-minute air-time rates, and you keep score as to which companies and industries are making best use of their Super Bowl advertising dollars.
And if you're anything like us, you're rooting for the home team. That is, you're watching for the local advertisers who've made their play in the Big Game.
No, they're not shelling out $4 million for a 30-second spot like Chevy or Budweiser. But they're probably making their single biggest ad buy of the year. And they're spending that money wisely, since they're capturing a plurality of eyes in their hometown markets.
This year, the local advertisers seem to realize there's more to Super Bowl marketing than shooting the spot and signing the check. There's looped-feedback, or synergy, in this kind of advertising. Just becoming a Super Bowl advertiser imparts gravitas, or maybe street cred.
How do advertisers leverage that? In any number of ways. In the weeks prior to the game, press releases are flying and leaks abound. Some advertisers tease their upcoming commercials, some preview them in their entirety. This year, one of the national advertisers (and only one), is staying completely mum about their commercial. And even that leverages the gravitas, because it has us talking about it. What's the big secret, M&M? We and a few hundred million of our closest friends can't wait to find out.
Seems like there's only one wrong way to do this, and that's to rely on the commercial alone. That's like having a baby without throwing a blowout shower or handing out cigars.
So — we hope our beloved local advertisers take note. You can release your commercials early, or coyly hint about their content. Or you can loudly proclaim the whole thing's super-secret, and tell everyone who'll listen that you have nothing to say.
Just be sure to do something. Leverage that time in the spotlight. The spotlight itself flares and fades fast. It's up to you to make the most of it — before, during, and long thereafter.
The C4:
- Super Bowl XLVII kicks off Sunday, Feb. 3rd at 6:30pm EST. The beautiful, resilient city of New Orleans is hosting the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. Will we be watching? You bet.
- You can also bet we won't just be watching the gridiron action. The Super Bowl is the world championship for advertisers. Super Bowl commercials are the standards against which all others are measured. From a professional standpoint, we watch them to keep our fingers on the pulse of our industry. From a personal standpoint, we enjoy them just as much as you do.
- We take this opportunity to salute the local marketers who'll be making their pitch during the big game. While the usual national advertisers are paying more than $3.6 million for 30 seconds of airtime, our local sellers are investing less, but still quite a lot, to gain attention and market share all across Northeast Ohio.
- May they make the most of it. The commercial itself is over in half a minute. It has the potential, though, to keep reverberating. Their options for building hype are limitless — they can release bite-sized teasers in advance, or they can post the whole thing to their website. They can create "behind the scenes" or "the making of" videos...or they can figuratively wink and nod and say "just watch the game." In any case, there's force-multiplying synergy there for the taking. We hope they take it.
