The $2.7 million question

Before the Super Bowl, Joseph Jaffe captured some thoughts on why advertisers flock to this event, the effects of a changing media landscape and if it makes sense for advertisers to continue to shell out $2.7 million for their spot. The excellent post is here. I have pulled out some highlights below.

• The Super Bowl is one of the few mass reach opportunities remaining on television. Smart advertisers like Anheuser-Busch are making an effort to tie in their ads with mobile promotions.
• Advertisers now rely on YouTube (which wasn't even around 2 years ago) to confirm a Super Bowl Hail Mary, validating that Super Bowl advertising is all about the P.R.
• Unless you're in the top 5, you've pretty much flushed your money down the toilet.
• With half the audience divided between males and females, there's almost always 50% wastage built into the value proposition
• Most people aren't watching the game by themselves. They are at a loud party or a bar, making audio essentially a non-factor. Throw in alcohol and the likelihood of recall drops even further.

I can't help but wonder where the research is that proves the Super Bowl actually drives product i.e. sales...The last case study that existed was the dot com example, where companies ploughed up to 50% of their budgets into 1 or 2 Super Bowl commercials and to thank them for their efforts, they went out of business.

Most brands advertising during the Super Bowl aren't saying anything new -- they are saying what they always have, just louder and to a bigger audience. To assure they get their money's worth, it is imperative for the spots to reach beyond the Super Bowl, creating buzz that not only draws people to view their ads on YouTube, but also to their website, MySpace pages, mobile sites and to any other place that consumers can interact with their brand. Reprise Media's Search Marketing Scorecard rated Cars.com, T-Mobile and Tide among the winners, with the best integration of commercials with search and social media, resulting in a spike in search.

But was this really the best use of $3 million dollars? If your focus is maintaining an already established and successful brand, it could be. But if your goal as a growing brand is to build an online presence and community that will embrace your product, Mack at the Viral Garden has a suggestion of how to better utilize your $3 million budget.

So what is the answer for your brand?