Pepsi will not air ads during this year’s Super Bowl. Instead, they have alloted $20 Million of they’re advertising budget towards social media. When you think about it, it seems like a no-brainer.
A great Super Bowl ad might air 3 times during the game. It will be shown again throughout the week on the news broadcasts and internet. Then it’s pretty much done. A company spends millions to showcase and brand their product to an audience that mostly won’t care. If you drink beer you know Budweiser. If you trade stocks you already knew about ETRADE.
Social media allows you to refine your advertisements to those most likely to buy your product. Targeting specific demographics is extremely easy on Facebook, MySpace and (whenever they start running ads – and they will this year) Twitter.
$20 Million can go much farther and convert much better than advertising during the Super Bowl. Not to mention you can actually see the success or failure of a particular campaign. A fraction of that could be spent towards a small-budget commercial posted on YouTube that could just as easily go viral in days. Google’s Super Bowl ad – the first one they have ever run – is one that’s been on YouTube for months.
I think the old-schoolers would disagree; “The Super Bowl is a once-in-a-year event that brings hundreds of millions of eyes together at one time. A business will never be able to brand their image so quickly.” But that branding could just as easily take place online. How many videos have you seen go viral in the last year? If those messages were from a sponsor we’d remember just as easily.
$20 Million for 30 seconds may just be on the verge of being antique. Pepsi seems to think so.
(Also read Pass or Fail, Pepsi’s Refresh Will Be Case for Marketing Textbooks).
