Dec
Punt return
Andrew Berthoff
Chatter about the biggest “advertising” event of the year, the Super Bowl, has started with the annual anticipation about what companies are spending how much money for 30-second spots far outstripping interest in the actual game.
The truth is, Super Bowl advertising isn’t about advertising at all; it’s about public relations. The value of investing $300,000 on a half-minute of big-game airtime isn’t in the creative hawking of products and services. The real ROI is derived from journalists and bloggers and YouTubers exhaustively discussing who’s in, who’s out, and who’s most creative.
With a fast-increasing number of people looking for work, the irony of Monster coming in with an expensive Super Bowl ad is there. Speculation that the advertising itself will be boring is more irony, since that media chatter simply increases awareness of the advertisers, returning more PR value to them.
Even old-reliable-NFL -sponsor General Motors’ decision not to make its usual Super Bowl buy is analyzed and over-analyzed by the media. GM is cannier than even I thought, since they clearly understand that they can deliver a message of frugality during the harshest economic winter the company and its current and former employees have ever seen.
GM and its fellow troubled competition should indeed focus on public relations, instead of advertising, to turn around its image and change widespread negative perception of their brands.
The ironic advertising-PR doesn’t stop there. The heretofore unknown (to me, anyway) Weatherproof Garment Co. developed a buzz marketing initiative with not just Super Bowl advertising at its heart, but a spot in the Wall Street Journal. They’re offering 10 three-second segments of their 30-second SB ad at $30k a pop. “Attention deficit growing . . . Say It Short — Say It Fast!” is the message.
Marketing guru Andrea Wojnicki named the phenomenon of publicity for marketing cleverness “Meta-Marketing.” The word-of-mouth nature of Super Bowl advertising-PR speaks volumes about the impact that purchasing (and even not purchasing) a 30-second spot can have . . . and there are still 45 days until the big game.
I’m sold.
And the chatter doesn’t even end after ring sizes are taken – every year I fall prey to the “best of” lists that follow: Which ad was the favourite? Which one was the biggest upset? Which underdog brand came out with a spot that wowed the masses?
As a Canadian resident, I am forced to go online to watch many of the spots that didn’t air in Canada (which, no doubt will be the talk of advetising, marketing and communications professionals on both sides of the border.) Online viewing causes online commentary, which elicits more chatter so awareness increases. It will be interesting to see post-game which brands harness the power of social media to generate conversations that really tackle the competition this year.