30 Seconds or 30 Days?

$5.5 million.

That’s a lot of money.

You can do a lot with $5.5 million.

A handful of brands are soon going to take $5.5M and put it towards running a :30 Super Bowl commercial spot.?It’s easy to understand why they might commit such a hefty spend for 30 seconds in 1 single game - the Super Bowl is the premier sporting moment of the year.?Built up over the course of two weeks, it’s not just a sporting event, it’s a cultural event.?If done right, a Super Bowl commercial can become a brand-defining moment.?Volkswagen – “The Force”, The E Trade Baby, McDonalds – “The Showdown” are just a few memorable spots clearly worth every penny spent.

96.4 million viewers tuned into Super Bowl 55 - a lot of people, but the lowest rating since 2007. ?In the last 10 years, while the cost of the ad has steadily gone up (from $3.3M in 2012), A18-49 viewership has steadily declined.?But still we know, despite the reduced audience, the Super Bowl remains the most watched event of the year.?If you’re spending $5.5M, odds are there’s going to be a lot of thought, preparation, planning, and maybe a celebrity or two.?It’s 30 seconds to make a serious impression.?Sure, you may be a brand that lands “Top 10 Super Bowl commercials of the year” - but if you don’t, was it a poor investment?

Brands that think differently tend to find success.?Now imagine a brand considering investing their $5.5M million a little differently.?The goal remains the same: make a major statement, reach a ton of people, create a memorable moment… but maybe do it for longer than 30 seconds??Imagine if that brand took $5.5M and spent it on Out-of-Home advertising.

What Newcastle Brown Ale did with Anna Kendrick and The Super Bowl back in 2014 (i.e. “almost making a Super Bowl commercial”) was sheer genius.?What if a brand that was planning on a Super Bowl spot instead took that budget and built out a vast and dominant OOH campaign??Something to cut through our screen fatigue and celebrate the fact people are excited to be returning to some kind of normalcy.?Billboards, walls, bus shelters, taxi tops with creative reading “This was our Super Bowl budget.”?I haven’t spent time working at Mischief, but you get the idea.

The OOH industry is expected to see a 14.6% increase in ad spend this year.?People are thrilled to be back outside, events are back, travel is back, and brands are aware.?Brands running a Super Bowl spot are looking for awareness, and there’s no better awareness driver than outdoor advertising.?In addition to that, the channel is now measurable, digital forward, and has a huge second life thanks to social amplification.?According to Nielsen - 1 in 4 U.S. adults surveyed have posted a photo on Instagram after seeing an outdoor advertisement.?You just don’t get that with any other channel.?OOH offers up so many different creative canvases to give brands the opportunity to create memorable moments and connect with their audience in an authentic way.

So, what can $5.5M in OOH get you?

1.)??Traditional Market Domination – You can effectively “own” 4 major markets and still come in slightly under the $5.5M you’d spend on the Big Game.?Think New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas.?You’d be everywhere: a massive building wrap on the 405 in LA, twin wallscapes towering over Penn Station in New York, wrapped buses flooding River North in Chicago, and a sea of bulletins on the Tollway in Dallas.?You’d get over 800M impressions at an average $5.30 CPM.?It wouldn’t be a national audience, but it would be a strategic one.?Core neighborhoods blanketed, with the ability to create plenty of Instagrammable moments.?Multiple opportunities and ways to tell your brand’s story. Seems like a pretty good investment if you ask me.

2.)??Programmatic – If you’re a brand truly focused on a data driven approach, imagine meeting your target audience throughout their daily journey. From digital billboards on their morning drive, to screens at the gas pump, to digital spectaculars at the mall, and screens inside the bar.?You can craft a highly targeted campaign by leveraging consumer insights and audience movement to ensure your brand message reaches your target in the real world.?With aggregated measurement, you can understand app downloads, in-store visits, awareness, and sales uplift.?Creative flexibility, real time optimization, and measurement all while ensuring you reach who you want to reach - a tremendous way to invest $5.5M.

3.)??The Big Moment – Brands have taken over every screen in Times Square, but has a brand ever taken over every screen in New York City??Wrapped buses are fun, but what about wrapped blimps??A brand name on a billboard is exciting, but what about a brand name as a new stop on the Philadelphia SEPTA system??The creative limits you can push in OOH are endless.?How about the people attending the Super Bowl??Being there live, they miss out on all the fun commercials.?What if a brand aired the first-ever “Super Bowl Only” commercial live from a see-through double decker bus parked outside the Santa Monica Pier – livestreaming to all screens in Sofi Stadium – for the attendees only??Lean on your creative teams, brand leads, and think about the most incredible, immersive brand building idea you can imagine.?All of these and more you can make come true with that $5.5M.?

I’m not going to sit here and tell a brand that investing in a Super Bowl spot is a bad idea, because, honestly, it’s not.?It’s a brand defining moment, which – if done right – won’t be forgotten.?It can elevate a brand above its competitors.?What I will do is challenge brands to think differently.?If you’re considering spending on a Super Bowl spot, but you are on the fence, pivoting to OOH isn’t the worst idea.?You can make a bigger splash in several ways, craft a deeper brand story, and measure the impact.?30 seconds is nice, but doesn’t 30 days sound better??So many brands take a stab at a Super Bowl spot with the audience left asking “where’s the beef?” – so why not be one of the brands that’s a bit more “up for whatever” and thinks outside the box.?Not the worst idea.