Introduction
Super Bowl events offer large firms a massive opportunity to improve their market position through reaching a massive number of customers to offer memorable awareness campaigns.
Companies are able to make significant impact among millions of viewers across the globe and, hence, in the long run, it becomes possible to expand market scope easily as well as retain the current customers.
However, there are several drawbacks that include the cost involved in purchasing advertisement time, time constraint since an ad only takes place within a short time and aggressiveness among consumers who are unmoved by memorable adverts.
Advantages of Advertising during Super Bowl Events
Super bowl is among the most watched television broadcasts with over 100 million viewers with different demographic characteristics. A case to prove the relevance of super bowl events as strategic for advertisements is the Super Bowl XLVI that had almost one billion viewers from over 225 countries across the globe.
Majority of the viewers are young consumers including college students who prefer going to the event in groups. Since young consumers are strategic targets for many firms, it implies that Super Bowl events are appropriate for creating brand awareness as well as increasing customer attention on the presence of the firm.
Brand awareness is a critical aspect in marketing operations since firms need to assure customers that they are committed to meeting their needs and expectations and remind the customers of the superiority of the firm in improving customers’ welfare. Super Bowl adverts provide memorable events and hence consumers keep talking about the products and the manner in which the advert captured their attention. This implies that after the game, it is still possible for the viewers to continue discussing the impact of the advert across online networks and offline. The event could be watched over YouTube hence contributing to viral marketing and continuity in creating awareness and capturing attention of potential customers.
Advertising during Super Bowls is also a strategic approach to influence business partners such as suppliers and distributors to continue working with the firm. Suppliers and distributors are often interested in working with companies that have the ability to sustain their operations for a longer duration and are, therefore, assured that the adverts during Super Bowls are likely to improve their competitive position.
Disadvantages of Advertising during Super Bowl Events
A 30 seconds commercial cost $ 4.5 million which then makes the costs of advertisements too high. Firms may be unable to have a favorable return on investment considering the high cost involved in the advertisements and the fact that the high expectations may not be realized in the long run. Besides the cost of purchasing advertising time, there are additional costs including the cost of producing the commercial, paying celebrities and licensing fees that add to the already high costs. This implies that in spite of the high exposure of the advert, it could have minimal impact in future prospects of the firm.
The other factor that makes Super Bowl advertisements less strategic is the fact that modern consumers are less convinced about following a brand blindly simply because it had a unique advertising platform. Customers are increasingly concerned having a clear knowledge on the reputation and the quality of the products offered by firms instead of being convinced by a 30-second ad. The doubt among consumers renders commercials during Super Bowls a wastage of company’s resources and time. Instead, there are simpler and inexpensive platforms that could be used to create awareness and expand market scope.
Marketing channels such as Facebook and twitter are among the tools where firms can create online presence and build their reputation within a shorter duration. The interaction through social networks is enough to convince customers of the ability of the firm to match their needs and expectations since more time is spent with the customers in explaining to them the utility that could be derived from consumption of products and services offered.
Advertisements during Super Bowls are viewed by consumers with varied demographic aspects which then puts the contents of the advert at risk. This implies that the design of the commercial needs to be carefully considered in terms of ethicality in it to avoid creating a bad impression among current and potential customers. A bad impression implies damaged reputation which then makes firm incur extra expenses in efforts to restore the confidence of customers.
Conclusion
Super Bowl events offer large firms a huge opportunity to improve their market positions through improving attention of customers and offering memorable awareness campaigns. Companies are able to make significance impact among millions of viewers across the globe such that in the long run, it is possible to expand market scope easily as well as retain the current customers. However, the high cost involved in the process needs to be consider since it could have adverse effects on the return on investment for the firm. There is also need to consider suitability of the advert in terms of the contents to avoid controversial statements from consumers that could damage firm’s reputation. A damaged reputation is destructive for any firm since it dramatically decreases sales and prevents potential customers from subscribing to the products and services of the firm.
References
Akcay, O., Sun, Q., & Chen, L. (2013). Perception of Super Bowl Xlvi TV Advertisements in the USA: A Case of College Students. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 11-23.
Jeong, Y., Yeuseung, K., & Xinshu, Z. (2011). Competing for consumer memory in television advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 617-640.
Olenski, S. (2014, January 30). Are Super Bowls Ads Worth it? Forbes Magaizine, pp. 1-4.
Teixeira, T. (2014). The Rising Cost of Consumer Attention: Why You Should Care, and What You Can Do about It. Harvard Business Review, 1-10.
APPENDIX A
Figure 1: The Rising Price of Attention for Events
The Rising Price of Attention for Events (Source:
