Canadian Marketing Blog

Who Won the Superbowl?

Okay, I admit it. While you're reading this during the week at some point after the SuperBowl aired and know who won, I'm sitting here writing this blog entry on SuperBowl Sunday instead of watching the big game. And while I'll be interested to hear who won (Go Saints?), I, like you, will go online tomorrow to find out who advertised and which spot was the funniest or most outlandish. And then I'll go on with my day and probably never think about those spots ever again.

However, the Superbowl is the most watched televised event of the year with some 100 Million people expected to watch. According to a recently televised report, a 30 second spot on American TV during the Superbowl will go for between $2.5 and $2.8 Million. That's about $80,000 a second!

But the larger question being asked these days, especially by a lot of young people I know, is whether that money could be better spent. Especially with everything that's going on in the world right now.

Now after years of producing some of the most memorable Superbowl ads in history, PEPSI is asking the same question and has decided not to run an ad. Instead, they're going online with "The Pepsi Refresh Project". http://www.refresheverything.com/

According to their "refresh everything" site, they're looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. "Look around your community and think about how you want to change it." Submit your ideas and vote on your favourites. Those chosen will be awarded up to $250,000 in grants in categories ranging from Health, Arts & Culture, and Food & Shelter to the Planet, Neighbourhoods and Education.

And the so-called Pepsi Generation is eating it up. This is just one example of what's going on right now. We saw the impact the internet and social media had and is having post-Haiti. This is more of the same great trend. The NetGeneration is getting involved and looking for something more fulfilling than a gratuitous 30-second spot where the money spent to buy the media could eradicate so many issues affecting Haiti, Cambodia and the Congo to name a few -- and those affecting us right here at home. Pepsi is on to something and other brands ignore the trend at their peril.

Hi Bryan, very true

but the challenge facing marketers will be to sustain that commitment on both sides.

If you recall Macy's has been running a "share the spirit' event for a number of years over the December holidays but that's a more concentrated and passive activity.

And it's much easier to simply promote some contest since it's a scaled event, but to engage (and how I lament that word since it's soo overused) consumers truly requires a level of commitment to the creation of a partnership as opposed to a sequenced consumer-commercial exchange.

it will be interesting to see how Pepsi is able to incorporate its local activities into the selling/promotional messages. It will also be interesting to see how consumers take on the challenge of guiding a corporation's philanthropic and local involvement.

To be successful, everyone will have to walk the talk.
Marketers will need to watch carefully since the power of the consumer/consumerism might be evolving to the next level on Maslow's heirarchy at which point....

cheers