Super Bowl ad costs $100,000 a second

Marketers that advertise on the Super Bowl are always seeking more bang for their buck.
This year, with each 30-second commercial during the game estimated to cost a record $3 million — yes, $100,000 a second — and the recession threatening to dampen viewer enthusiasm, the sponsors are intensifying efforts to amplify the force of what they plan for Super Bowl XLIII.
“Especially in this economy, people are saying, ‘I’d better get my money’s worth,”’ said Andrew Graff, president and chief executive at Allen & Gerritsen, which conducts an annual survey online on the Super Bowl spots viewers consider most meaningful.
So a first-time Super Bowl advertiser, General Electric, intends to make its commercial the springboard for an elaborate campaign — in print and online as well as on TV — focused on innovative ideas “now” in areas like energy and the environment.
The campaign promotes GE products like Smart Grid energy technology as “innovation you don’t have to wait for” rather than far-off fantasies. The various aspects of the campaign, including digital holograms, online films and a special Web site, are all scheduled to go live on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1.
A returning sponsor, Coca-Cola, is using the Super Bowl to help introduce an “Open happiness” campaign for its flagship soft drink. The campaign will be supplemented by everything from short spots on “American Idol” to 16-ounce bottles of Coke at lower, recession-friendlier prices of 99 cents each.
In addition to two commercials during the game for Coca-Cola Classic, there will be a Coke Zero spot.
Another returning advertiser, E-Trade, is surrounding its Super Bowl spot with a variety of Internet initiatives, including some that began on Facebook and YouTube (youtube.com/etrade) this week and on Twitter early next week.
The E-Trade commercial will bring back a character from two popular spots the company ran in the game last year, a talking baby wise beyond his years. The campaign also includes ads in newspapers and movie theaters and on Web sites.
“It’s more than a 30-second spot,” said Nick Utton, chief marketing officer at E-Trade. “The Super Bowl is part of a total plan.”
GE pondered the decision to make its Super Bowl debut at such a fraught moment, said Judy Hu, global executive director for advertising at GE.
One reason the company is going ahead with the campaign, she said, is that it has what she called a “positive, optimistic” spirit. The Super Bowl commercial features a song by the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and concludes with the company’s upbeat “Imagination at work” theme.
For Coca-Cola, in one spot scheduled for the Super Bowl, insects conspire to swipe a bottle of Coke Classic from a youth sleeping in a park. A second spot, commenting on the popularity of online and onscreen avatars, suggests that a bottle of Coke Classic can restore some human interaction to the interactive world.
Among the other advertisers on Super Bowl XLIII, to be broadcast by NBC, are Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Bridgestone, CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Castrol, Denny’s, DreamWorks Animation, GoDaddy.com, H&R Block, Hyundai Motor, Monster.com, PepsiCo and Teleflora.

1. What are you thoughts on a company spending this type of money on an advertisement?
2. If you were a business owner or CEO woudl you spend this type of money to advertise?
3. Do you think that the Super Bowl could bring a company that much more business than other times?
4. If you didn't advertise during the Super Bowl, what event would you focus most of campaign on?
5. Would this be a great place to spring board a campaign?