Today is, of course, Superbowl Sunday. Heralded by many as the best day of the year for sports and by others to be the best day for advertising. Going off of numbers from an article on MSNBC.com (Advertising’s Big Game)in 1987, a 30-Second ad in that legendary Giants victory over the Broncos cost $600,00. The viewership was an estimated 87,190,000. If we do the math, each viewer cost the ad companies 14.5 cents. Seems like a small price to pay, right? I mean, 87 million people saw the ad! Fast forward to 2006 – approximately 77,900,000 people tuned in to watch the Steelers trounce the Seahawks. A 30-second ad cost companies a whopping $2.5 million dollars… lets to the math again: 77,900,000/2,500,000 = $31.16 per person. Lets say that again – Companies paid $31.16 for every person who watched their commercial. If you watched this game, for every 30 seconds of commercial you saw, a company paid $31.16.
That’s all well and good, Tim – but was it worth it? Read on to find out…
Well let’s see – on a personal level, did any of the comercials warrant more than a chuckle or an ooh or ahh from the amount of cleavage and wet female body parts(I’m looking at you, GoDaddy)? Did you actually conciously increase your consumption of products advertised? On a subconcious level, you may have, but only because when you were at the store and you looked at a product it made you remember that commercial that made you laugh so hard. But if a comparable, cheaper prodcut was nearby those chances are very slim. Studies have shown that in the past 6-7 years it has gotten harder to companies to account for TV marketing success. Its almost unmeasurable, as other things in the world are happening and to attribute a spike in sales to a comercial would mean that the world existed in a vaccum. What I’m trying to get accross here is that its almost impossible to say why certain trends happen at any given time.
Lets take another route – do you judge the quality of a product based on its effective marketing? Of course not, that’s a silly question. It does stand to reason, however, that if a company has a lot of money to spend on marketing, it certainly must spend at least as much on the quality of their product, right? Sadly, this is not a guarantee however much it should be.
Well how do you judge the quality of a product or service? Here’s a couple common avenues:
- Trial and Error – You take a shot on a product you know nothing about and either have a good or bad experience. This is many times costly and does not happen unless people are unhappy with their current product.
- Word of Mouth – Someone else close to you who somewhat knows your interests and buying habits has tried it based on trial and error or another recommendation and has had success with it.
Which of these do you think is more common for you? What about for others? What if you could have recommendations from people whose opinions you respect or agree with that are also interested in the same things that you are? Sound too good to be true? Until a few years ago I would have agreed with you. Information originally reported by PodcastingNews.com states that,
New data from Podtrac and TNS suggests that podcasts may be a much more powerful advertising platform than television.
The companies studied podcast advertising from February 2006 to March 2008 across multiple product categories and ad types. Unaided awareness for podcast ads was 68%, compared with 21% for streaming video and 10% for television.
““The studies showed a 73% increase in likelihood to use or buy an advertised product,” said Velvet Beard, vice president at Podtrac. “The studies showed that 69% of audience members have a more favorable view of in-show advertisers.”
What this geek-speak means is that more and more people are finding niche outlets that appeal directly to their interests. These online entertainment shows, or “Podcasts,” do the trial and error bit because its something they enjoy, or have a way to get demos or pre-release items from manufactuers before they hit the market at little or no cost to them. You don’t have to slough through a four-hour radio show to get it either. Most podcasts run between 10 -30 minutes for video and 30-90 minutes for audio. The fact that they can be downloaded and listened to at your leisure makes them the ultimate on-demand entertainment service.
Oh, and did I mention that 99% of them are free?
So, is advertising on the superbowl worth it? Personally I don’t think so. Its a great way for companies to increase brand recognition but gone are the days where pushing your product out in front of millions of viewers means you are going to increase your product sales by that high a margin. I believe the companies should reinvest their money into their employee’s forgotten 401k, insurance, and reinvigorate pension plans. When most companies are cutting budgets and laying off people by the thousands, its time to put money where it will do the most good.
I’ll be writing an article on the idea of quality of advertising is much more important than the quality of advertising, but I want to point out that its much more important to get your product in front of people who already enjoy that type of thing. If you have a tech product, putting it in front of people who don’t understand or enjoy tech is a waste of time and money. I’ll leave you all with that thought for now. If you’re curious about what I’m talking about, boot up iTunes and look up some podcasts that interest you and immediately you’ll see what I’m talking about.
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