Advertisers Cut Super Bowl Costs, and Move Online

In another sign of economic depression, even the Super Bowl, the biggest advertising event of the year is feeling the the pinch.

With a record high cost of three million dollars for a 30 second spot, or $100,000 per second, the television ads were a sign of the times. Gone were the usual bevy of “manly” truck commercials from the big 3 automakers, all of which are in financial trouble. Instead there were ads for smaller cars from Hyundai and Toyota.

Everywhere you looked there was a surprising lack of traditional advertisers. The only one that came to mind was Anheuser-Busch. They are continuing their campaign to convince everyone that they are still “American” after being bought out by the Belgian brewer InBev last summer.

What struck me however was the amount of online businesses that were buying ad time. Gold4cash.com, Teleflora.com and Godaddy.com all had spots directing people to their websites. Increasingly, advertising on the television is just a way to direct people to the real product, which is the website.

A website is the ultimate in interaction between companies and consumers besides an actual storefront. Three million dollars spent on a website is enough to keep it online and active for a long time. Looking at the return on investment, its no wonder that companies are spending less on momentary ads and more on making their websites effective. In a down economy, the urge is to slash costs anywhere you can. I don’t know why some companies think advertising should be cut in a down economy, but they do.

It doesn’t cost much to make your website an effective piece of your marketing. Websites are available 24 hours a day, every day, and there is a negligible cost for keeping them online if it is a small to medium sized site. It is important now for businesses to reorganize their marketing efforts during this down period. Don’t make the mistake your competitors are by pulling back. Businesses should be pushing forward with the eventual goal of capturing market share when everyone else is weak. I know I plan on coming out of this downturn in a better position than when it began.

One of the busy businesses during the super bowl were local strip clubs. They had to hire additional staff and lap dancers. At least sex remains profitable.