Do you even want to advertise in the super bowl?

Ryan deftly covered the do’s and don’ts of local Super Bowl advertising earlier this week.

I want to talk strategy. Purchasing a local avail in the Super Bowl is certainly one of the most expensive advertising opportunities your company will have all year long. You’re certainly going to be in front of a lot of eyeballs.

But is it worth it? Depends on what you’re trying to make happen.

First, let’s define two terms:

Reach: How many people will see your ad.

Frequency: How many times they’ll see it in a given period.

So, Super Bowl Sunday, reach is never going to be higher, right? Even though your ad won’t run until sometime in the 3rd quarter (typically the first local avail), you’re still going to reach what, maybe forty percent of households in your market? That’s a serious load of people.

And, you’ll reach them with a frequency of 1.0, right? Assuming you buy one of the few spots allotted to your local affiliate.

Let’s say you’re going to reach 400,000 on Super Bowl Sunday. Wow! Congrats!

Now, I have a question for you:

Would you rather reach 400,000 people one time or 100,000 people four times or 40,000 people ten times or even 4000 people 100 times?

Based on the time-honored agency model of gross impressions and gross ratings points, they should cost exactly the same.

Now, I have another question for you:

If I could offer you 4000 new customers that have been thoroughly persuaded by seeing (and/or hearing) your advertising campaign 100 times, would that be something that would interest you?

Because that’s what you’re giving up to run once during the Super Bowl. And, still, maybe you should.

If you’re giving away a Lexus on the day after the Super Bowl, then yes … or you’ve got the Hope Diamond coming to your jewelry store on Monday, then yes, the Super Bowl is perfect. Buy all the eyeballs you can. Tie it into an online scent trail viewers can follow to your website. Kill it.

If you’ve got an event or reason to visit your company in the few days following the big game, go for it. You’ll score big, but remember – your message and production better be first-rate. Your ad is going to be compared to the very best and biggest and most expensive ads of the year. Fairly or not, your message is going to be compared to those of the national brands (or quickly forgotten).

Otherwise, opt for the frequency.