2010 Super Bowl Commercials
Ahhhh the 2010 Super Bowl commercials…the advertising Mecca. The 2010 Super Bowl commercials where dominated by Doritos? Pepsi didn’t play in the commercial game at all and of course you had the ever-memorable beer commercials.
Even though there were a plethora of advertisements whose marketing dollars paid off the most? And who is going to see the biggest return on their investment dollars?
2010 Super Bowl Commercial Ad Stats
According to CBS, this year 2010 Super Bowl commercial ads cost $3.01 million dollars for 30 seconds of airtime. This number excludes production costs and fees for actors, equipment, ad agencies, directors, crew and other various personnel. While I don’t yet have the stats for 2010, in 2009 NBC sold out all their commercials spots for a record generating revenue of $206,000,000.
How can CBS charge such a high price tag commercial airtime during the Super Bowl? There are 4 general reasons why companies are willing to spend $100,000 per second for ad space:
- According to Nielsen ratings your commercial is going to reach 90 million viewers.
- Word of Mouth Buzz: Super Bowl commercials are just as anticipated and talked about as the Super Bowl
- People actually watch the commercials during the Super Bowl
- There is a great chance that your commercial is going to end up on YouTube, talk show, radio show or some other form of media where the ad will continue getting views until next years BIG Game.
But, is shelling out that kind of money to be associated with the 2010 Super Bowl worth the money? Pepsi didn’t think so and that is why they took their multi-million dollar advertising budget that is usually set aside for the Super Bowl and spent the money online feeling that they would get a better return on their investment.
But, in the mist of all the Super Bowl commercial hype lets not forget the real reason of commercials, to generate revenue. Sure you could argue that commercials also brand your company but really, if an advertisement is not bringing you a return on your investment then stop running the ad. Switch they station, change the magazine or scratch the ad all together and start over.
Commercials Should Convert
I mean I am all about commercials being entertaining but when a 30-second commercial is carrying a price tag of $3.01 million dollars that sucker better convert into some dinero! Heard?
Which leads me to this question, “Why do companies focus so hard on making creative, memorable commercials during the Super Bowl when they should be doing that every time?” The main reason is that 3 million dollars is enough to spark anyone’s creativity. What would happen to these companies if they made ridiculously funny, creative commercials throughout the whole year when the price tag is uh I don’t know…a little closer to reasonable?
Creative Geico Commercials
Oh, then you would be Geico.
Month in and month out Geico keeps coming out with creative commercials. The result? The masses are continually talking about them…especially when good commercials throughout the year are so rare. B.C. Forbes, the founder of Forbes magazine said, “There are no traffic jams in the extra mile” The reason why adages like this have been around for years and will continue to prove themselves true in the years to come is that people don’t change.
No Easy Way to Success
Your competition is looking for the easy way to convert a dollar. And really there isn’t an easy way to become a success. If all commercial and ad campaign’s were planned like Super Bowl commercials company’s would find themselves in the same league as Geico, who has all other insurance companies talking about how they can save you more money, thereby indirectly marketing you.
Think about it…Geico’s competition is spending money advertising them. Your competition could be doing the same thing with a little creativity.
So, which commercials will prove to be the most profitable in 2010? I think that Doritos that the funniest commercials but they will NOT see the highest return on their investment. Why?
The Doritos commercial campaign is not going to be profitable for them because they were not measureable. Where they funny? Absolutely! I loved it when the kid put the man in his place about his mama but outside of looking at the profit margin to see if they increased their results are not measurable. Doritos will not know which brand will sell better as a result or what the exact effects of their advertisements were.
The top 3 companies who will see a return on their advertising dollars are:
1. GoDaddy.com
GoDaddy was driving people to the website to see the rest of the commercial. And if you did go to the website to watch the remainder of the GoDaddy commercial then it looked like it should have been on late night television, if you know what I mean? But sex sells and GoDaddy does a great job at selling the bootie.
What I liked about their marketing strategy is that they can directly track who came to their site, how they came to their site, at what time viewers came to their website, and how much revenue was made off of that traffic. What I didn’t like is that outside of watching the commercial there were no offers to help them convert.
2. Dockers
The Dockers commercial was the men running through an open bald prairie wearing various outfits with no pants. At first when I was watching the commercial I didn’t know what the heck was going on. But, they brought everything together nicely when they offered the viewers a free pair of pants when you went to their website.
Dockers knows that everyone who comes to their website requesting the free pair of pants is as a result of their commercial efforts. And judging that right now (the day after the Super Bowl 2010) “dockers free pants” and “dockers.com/freepants” are the top 2 searches in the US right now according to Google…I think that their payout is going to be pretty high!
3. Denny’s
But, Denny’s is going to hit a Grand Slam with their commercial ads by giving away a free Grand Slam breakfast from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Not only were their ads funny (the screaming chickens) but also they have the most measureable stats in place. In that 8-hour period they are going to be able to see just how effective their Super Bowl commercial ads were.
But, why would Denny’s run this promotion on Tuesday during these hours? This is Denny’s slowest time during the week so when the business explodes out of nowhere they know that the new business will result from the Super Bowl commercials, NOT any other freakish incident.
Moral of the story: Do not spend money on television commercials or any other type of advertising if you cannot measure the results. Especially, when the cost is $100,000 per second!
That is the Marketing Model rundown on the 2010 Super Bowl commercials but I would like to hear your thoughts. What commercials were your favorites?




