Superbowl advertisers are missing the real game

Ad Age reports that many Superbowl advertisers are staying quiet about buying the expensive spots. This is exactly the wrong strategy.

At $2.6 million per spot, even with 100,000,000 people watching, this works out to a $26 cost per thousand, high by any standards. Add the fact that this is a very untargeted audience and any specific advertiser's cost per target audience thousand escalates rapidly. There's no way to get a return on just the 30 seconds of the game alone.

Last year, I posted my thoughts about the right Superbowl ad strategy:

"The only way to rationalize this expense is to use it as a platform for public relations, word of mouth, and other exposure for your spot. Just as the ads have come to almost overshadow the game, the value from exposure before and after the game overshadows the 30 seconds the brand is paying for. "

Ad Age attributes companies' reluctance to promote their Superbowl ads to "accountants and procurement types breath[ing] down CMO necks."

In other words, the bean counters, trying to squeeze more efficiency out of marketing budgets, are accomplishing exactly the opposite of what they intend.

I have expected that the buzz about the Superbowl ads this year would focus on Doritos, the NFL, and Chevrolet who are conducting a contest for consumer-generated ads. It looks like the other advertisers are making this a reality by leaving the field wide open (pun intended)...