According to CBS, in 2010 a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot cost $2.5-$3.0 million. To those of us whose sales are far lower, this seems wildly excessive. Why would companies continue to set aside mega-budgets for their commercials to be seen on Super Sunday? There is much exposure on game day, of course. But is [...]

I’m putting together a master list of Super Bowl XLVI ads, along with links to each advertiser’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Here’s what I have so far in the categories of consumer goods (non beverage…beer and soda has its own category…more to come) and league / government commercials. Anyone care to help fill in the [...]

Besides the game itself and the commercials, another big attraction surrounding the Super Bowl are the musical performances. Each year, big names perform during half time shows. (On an irrelevant note, The Who are the entertainment for XLIV. Has anyone else noticed the network “playing it safe” with old-school acts since the Janet Jackson fiasco [...]

It is no coincidence that each year’s Super Bowl location is awarded years before anyone knows which teams will be playing. The influx of vacationers and fans is a windfall to the city. The tourism, restaurant, souvenir, and entertainment industries (to name a few) all benefit. Your small business (or any other size, for that [...]

Do you-as a marketer or business manager-look at all the hub-bub surrounding the Super Bowl and wonder how you can get in on the action? There are ways that do not require a Super Bowl-commercial-sized budget. My latest article, Super Bowl Parties and Entertainment. How Your Business Can Benefit, may give you some ideas. Here [...]

Just received notice that once again you will be able to vote for your favorite Super Bowl commercials online. CBS will be airing their 2009 installment of “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” on January 31st, 8:00 pm Eastern time (Day before Super Bowl XLIII) and winners will be determined by us. This year’s top 10 of [...]

Most small business owners know that positioning their companies as providing the same products or services in the same way as the industry giant can lead to disaster. Kind of like a Chihuahua waving a red flag in front of a bull; one twitch from the giant and they’re dead. Studying the competition and acting [...]

It may be tempting for small business marketers to roll their eyes at the thought of spending $3 million on a single ad spot. Smart marketers, however, pay attention. To them, SWOT is more than a misspelled law enforcement team. They know that strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can arise at any moment. Another’s weakness [...]

After five years of progressively more offensive Super Bowl advertising, yesterday was the last straw. I’ve switched 36 domain names from GoDaddy to NameCheap.com. Revisiting the domain registrar list, I was pleased to find that it had exploded since I last researched. Not really into checking out all of GoDaddy’s 952 competitors, I looked into [...]

One of the great things about interactive Internet is the amazing things we can do with it. Super Bowl advertisers are getting more creative at integrating traditional commercials with social media and other online marketing techniques. Several companies have created ancillary videos around the commercials. Here are a couple I have run across so far… [...]