by R Shimoda

Created on: January 28, 2010

For those who are and have been in the retail industry, the answer to this question is very simple...more customers.  If you were a retailer and knew that everytime you had an ad showing on the television or newspaper, your business increased by a few percentage points.  How could you pass up a chance to show your ad to over 100 million viewers across the country?  If only 5 percent of those viewing, decided to purchase your product or better yet, purchase it and tell their friends, how could this be a bad deal?  The answer is that it is a good deal...a very good deal.

How effective is buying ad time?  Last year a 30 second ad ran almost $3 million dollars and TNS Media did an interesting effectiveness survey (http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/06/super-bowl-ad-com mercial-scorecard-dennyspepsi-budweiser-bud-light/)  which looked at the traffic for different advertisers on Super Bowl Sunday.  There were winners (Denny's with traffic up 1679%, Frito-Lay up 313%, and Pepsi, up 199%) and losers (Etrade down -57%, Cars.com down 22% and Monster.com down 18%). 

Also there is interest even among the non-sports fans to watch Superbowl Ads because they're fun.  The average adult has an attention span of 30 seconds so if one is going to motivate them to take action or purchase anything, it is critical your message is delivered and remembered in that very small window of time.  One of the most effective ways to do that is the use of humor in advertising.  I'm sure most readers recall some years ago where a beer manufacturer used frogs as their mascot and for many years the image stuck.  The Superbowl Ads give the best of the best in advertising an opportunity to outdo each other or find new ways to get their message across.

Past campaigns have had events like Bud Bowl, a game within the game that allows Superviewers additional entertainment.  But not all ads are entertaining, one of my favorite Superbowl ads was a tribute made by a beer manufacturer to pay respect to victims of the 9/11 tragedy.  Even though there was no dialogs the visual images were powerful enough to make an impression. 

So whether you're a sports fan or not, take out time on February 7 to watch the Superbowl and be entertained by the commercials that air. 

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