2023 is young which means Super Bowl 57 ads are coming and we have a chance to dissect them again along with revisiting my article from last year comparing the format to OOH & DOOH!
The Super Bowl is essentially a national advertiser’s playground, too exclusive for the local guy or gal. While maybe we should demand #AffordableSuperBowlAds… for now we can dissect the game within the game vs. OOH for the advertisers that did play. You can also track them at this link from AdWeek.
Last year, my personal favorite was Coinbase, the 2000s DVD screen saver (hints toward ‘The Office’ too) because it went silent and everyone thought “oh no, what happened!?” And then we look at the screen and there is a QR code bouncing around the screen with no label. Immediately someone has to scan it in the room. This does 3 things; 1. attracts attention, 2. gets impressions on the brand & 3. provides a measurement tool. TV, like all other traditional media is cumbersome to track so if NBC tells Coinbase they’re getting 20m impressions, that’s great but now they have their own data to back it up based on number of scans. I think this was one of the most underrated benefits of this ad.
While crypto and Web 3.0 may be on the backburner this year we do know Doritos, FanDuel & and Heineken 0.0 are projected to be front and center. Apparently non-alcoholic and mocktails are gaining in popularity… who would have guessed?
Now, in terms of comparing OOH to a Super Bowl (SB) ad, yes the SB ad is flashy, people talk about it after and replay it on YouTube, but the raw numbers of the actual paid media, OOH actually wins. In 2022, a thirty-second spot was estimated at $6.5m!
On top of the cost, SB viewership has actually been on a slight decline since 2015 but the cost has increased 20x! This makes the CPM, for a measly 30-second TV spot you can’t interact with, a whooping $58! For those that have dove into OOH before and looked at our numbers, while this varies by demand, most of the time we’re $4 CPM. Either end of the spectrum, we’d never be close to $58.
So put on your $6.5m ad budget hat for a second. Would you want 30 seconds at $58 CPM or continuous coverage in dozens of the top US markets for 4-weeks? It’s an easy decision from a raw number standpoint, here is what it would look like:
An advertiser could buy 50 of the top markets in the US
Earn over one billion impressions
Achieve an average reach of 84% of the market with a frequency of 7.2 in those top 50 markets
Pay a CPM of about $5.40
1 Billion (Dr. Evil voice)!
OOH & DOOH have very high ad recall rates, especially with younger generations. We are between 40% – 67% whereas TV is 22% – 62% and mobile/digital is 35% – 52% so for ability to make the message stick, it makes the most sense to use OOH.
Get ready for the big game and to finally say goodbye to Sober January! Thank you for reading. All stats and figures have been sourced from The OAAA.
Steve