My Advertising Alternative for Feb 1

January 21, 2009 · Comments

Football The Superbowl is coming up on February 1st. I just read a whole bunch of articles where people are voting against spending the $3 Million USD to place an ad during the event. (My favorite story is this one. With the economy where it is, and with people worried about how they’re going to pay for everything, I offer you this alternative:

Advertise on a Blog

Sure, it won’t be viewed by millions (unless you pick the top blogs), but it will be clicked, clickable, linked, embedded in the Google hivemind forever, and countless other benefits over a 30 second spot.

And cheap. If you wanted to pay 1/1000th of the price of that superbowl spot, I’m sure plenty of people would love to take $3,000 for your ad. Not sure where to advertise? Swing by Alltop and figure out the right category for your spend. Go check out Compete.com for a glance at their site traffic, and maybe ping Technorati to determine the site’s authority.

So think about this: if you wanted to spend the same as a Superbowl ad, you could buy one THOUSAND ads at $3000 each and carpetbomb the blogosphere while sharing the wealth.

Crazy, I know. Or…

Photo Credit foundphotoslj

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  • Great idea, but I guess the main problem is that the majority of people still use "old media" as their yardstick. How many of the viewers of SuperBowl have a blog, or read them? It's not to say blog adverts wouldn't be effective, but would the audience be there (or care)?
  • So, seriously, what blog ad networks do *you* recommend? You cannot be serious about AllTop, Compete and Technorati as devices to help Super Bowl advertisers decide where to advertise on blogs. { Oh... did I just write your next blog post? ;-) }
  • brilliant. The other thing you get is engaged people. If you want to get at the same crowd go to the blogs that talk about the Superbowl for the next 2 weeks. Advertise with a few hundred sports blogs. Or but advertisement on a site that will post all the ads from the Superbowl. How many people go try to find the ads after? Put an ad on that site. People are already there to see ads!
  • good one chris.

    I believe you're trying to boost the blogosphere advertising spend for brands and media houses. good support than.

    Cheers!
    Jean
  • Thats not a bad idea, Chris. I think a corporation going the blog-advert route could prove to be something very viral, as well as make for a great case study, should it succeed. If they spent roughly the same amount of money getting their ads to all the major blogs and shareable websites, that could make for a highly visable campaign. I guess I'm just unsure whether the number of impressions would be similar going that route, but I like the idea!
  • Advertising on blogs is a great idea and it works very well when you can blanket the market (ie, spend just as much but instead of one superbowl ad, buy advertisements on 50 blogs in the same niche).

    I know whenever I see an advertisement for the 14th time, I truly remember that brand, especially if the advertisements are on top blogs.

    It also makes me want to find out what that company is and will kick me in the butt to click on that ad even with a severe case of "ad blindness".
  • It would be great to see a group buy an ad spot, create a memorable ad, and then have it point to a collection of funny ads that didn't make it into the SuperBowl.

    Advertisers could then buy ad spots to be displayed in the collection.

    The key would be in creating a compelling SuperBowl ad that made people want to look at more ads, and making enough money to pay for the SuperBowl ad. HA!

    ... Scott
  • a stand alone superbowl ad you're right probably isn't that effective. But imagine adding a well trained SEO campaign around that ad and a great interactive website with social media components appropriate to that particular brand.

    You combine the amount of people seeing the ad, the attentiveness people give towards super bowl ads and the follow up elements i described and i think you'd be hard pressed to argue that putting a banner on a blog is going to be more effective.
  • Hey, I'm just musing. :)

    @BarbaraKB - I think it's one way to find people who are writing about your space. Which would you recommend?
  • Not only will advertisers spend $3 mil/30 seconds on Super Sunday but how many of these commercials will be pumping gas guzzling trucks promoting features like "trailer pulling" capicity and control mechanisms? (Because this is so critical right now to so many...) Anyway, I wrote yesterday that the Innauguration and the Super Bowl would be my 2 small nods to traditional broadcasts in these couple of weeks (although after watching CC Chapman yesterday, wished I watched FB) but not without the computer nearby to check out tweets and other commentary to fill the gaps that traditional media is missing. And if there are gaps in the broadcast, there are gaps in the advertising. Advertisers spending $3 mil/30 seconds would be smart to think about that.
  • Sounds a lot like 'Cafe Shaped Conversations'.

    This is a great idea for businesses, whether local or national, to spark a discussion among a loyal audience.

    Hell, I'd dance a jig if a business was interested in paying me $3,000 for a Super Bowl alternative (and what a cool alternative it would be... muahaha!).
  • Numerous blog advertising networks for Super Bowl advertisers. Ask your friends at IZEA.
  • I love the idea... I'll rent space to one of those big corporations any day of the week!
  • That's so true. Although, I remember watching some superbowls for the commercials. These days, I'd be likely to forget them all and be excited if I saw a good ad on a good website.
  • Ha. Interesting idea. But I think that they should stick to TV. Networks are already suffering. The last thing they need is for people to cut back on a time where they expect to bring their books out of the red.

    But if they did take advantage of blogs, there'd definitely be a lot of happy people bouncing around the blogosphere. :-)
  • Chris,

    If you could logistically make that easy, I bet you could sell it.

    The truth is that would be VERY difficult to do. Chucking 3 million bones for everyone's eyeballs is simple. It is unartful. Your ideas is clever. Make clever easy and you win ;)
  • Great Idea!
    I brought this up in my BNI networking meeting this past Tuesday. I wasn't referring to my fellow members to not advertise on the Super Bowl.

    The thought was actually why spend money in dying local newspapers and find local city websites to advertise with instead.

    Also, we need to stop calling them blogs. Community sites (websites) is better because the small business owner thinks, 'blogs' that's just personal journals. This mindset is changing but it is still slow.

    For a small business to find a local website to advertise with AllTop might not be there best choice, but a simple google search might get them pointed in the right direction.
  • Great idea I buy an advertisement on let's say your content platform and your staff create content with stories about teams and players in the event! Advertiser's portion changes daily starting 2 weeks before the event and is down loadable and can be subscribed to on lets say Tabbloid! http://www.tabbloid.com/ ! Of course with content creation included you would have to charge more than $3000.00 and have local sports writers add articles and Screencasts ! We now launch ! Marshal Sandler's Widget Superball Scene news video etc and Google the hell out of it ! And also have The Staff at Edelman Digital do the Public Relations ! Any advertiser with a brain for let's Say $200,000.00 could splatter the internet . Three Million on Old Media you are competing with Potato Chips and Beer hoping the beer won't interfere with your message ! I agree with Loren Nash We eliminate blog and call it a content creation platform by geographic area[ "Also, we need to stop calling them blogs. Community sites (websites)!" Loren Nash]
  • If your point is made to the smaller company who has long drooled over the opportunity to make a superbowl ad... then absolutely. Spend your money in better ways at better places.

    But if *everyone* takes your advice and cuts their superbowl ad for 2010's superbowl, how long before there isn't a superbowl (not that I would care, in particular).

    Ultimately, I think fear will keep the superbowl ads (and the superbowl) safe. The big companies will be too afraid to not advertise. What if that kind of advertising really does still work and fewer people buy coke this year because we didn't advertise? What if our competitor does something brilliant and that one ad causes everyone to switch?

    But while the old corporations continue advertising on old media it gives opportunities for new companies to spring up in their place.
  • But won't the intelligent marketers get the best of both worlds? By creating a 30 second spot that initially airs on Feb 1st and is widely shared across many social media platforms therafter, they should be able to leverage both opportunities. Instead of paying for the ads on the "net", they can get all of us to share it because we think it is funny, cool or even cute. I, for one, prefer to view a humerous video sent by a friend, than a banner ad on a blog site, and will also have more trust in viewing when freely shared.
  • $3,000? I would be willing to take $89.00 to cover the cost of my annual hosting fee with http://www.godaddy.com - I think the beauty in your idea is that so many of the millions of Bloggers don't do it for revenue, and would be willing to post an ad from a major corporation just for the validity it would give their Blog. It is kind of like the SocialVibe model, putting ads on Blogs that other wise would not have the pull for corporations like Apple or Coke.
  • Most advertising analysts measure the impact of Super Bowl ads based on the media buy. The real value of advertising on the Super Bowl comes from the auxiliary benefits of massive news coverage, blog coverage, ad reviews and awards, preview shows, etc-- stuff you really can't purchase. Blog ads don't generate the word of mouth your blog post has. Your commenting on 1secondad has achieved what MillerCoors wanted - discussion.

    Superbowl '00 Advertiser
  • Also, your Superbowl TV ad will be USA-only.

    Blogs are global!

    At least, to the English-speaking world...
  • With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site.
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