Do I owe the Super Bowl an apology?

For as long as I’ve had the honor of appearing on your screen as a Blogger, I have made essentially an annual tradition of bashing the whole pomp and circumstance surrounding the time of year I’ve come to call “Super Bowl Season.” I have stated often, and continue to believe, the hype about the grandeur of the ads is misplaced because the focus is on the window dressing rather than on what marketing is supposed to do, which is to get results. And in most cases, that means to sell product!

You can read those rants here if you like, but my main gripe has been that as the price of Super Bowl advertising goes higher, so does the difficulty in achieving a respectable return on the marketing investment.

But could it be that your ole buddy Dr. Burt has shot off his big mouth again without thinking? A couple of observations thanks to two marketers I greatly respect, Brian Blake and Tim Berney, have caused me to give some more thought to the matter. But don’t tell them that!

Brian sent me links to two articles that are packed with interesting Super Bowl ad stats and visuals. One of the many points the articles make is that even though a 30 second spot in Super Bowl 2014 does cost a whopping 4 Million-Plus, because the size of the audience is so huge, it actually makes the cost-per-viewer isn’t any higher than it is during normal prime time. The article gives two other reasons why Super Bowl ad space deserves respect, and I’ll let you see that for yourself. Here’s the link.

Tim was interviewed in the Daily Oklahoman last week. One of the many good points he made was that if these ads are component parts of a bigger strategy, rather than just something randomly done to attract all those eyeballs at that one point in time, then the chances of the campaigns contributions to a bigger payoff go up considerably. He’s got a relevant take on how social media impacts the whole event, too. It’s a great article and I’d urge you to check it out here.

You can visit with both Brian and Tim at the AMAOKC’s Annual Super Bowl Showdown in a couple of weeks.