Super Bowl-Inspired Marketing Ideas

Quick one for you today.

I honestly didn’t realize the big game was happening yesterday, but that won’t stop me from jumping on the “lessons from the Super Bowl” trend.

Here are a few marketing concepts you can better appreciate right after a public spectacle like this.

You can probably guess what a direct response guy like me is going to say. But you’d be wrong today. ?

1. It’s helpful to build an audience

Word on the street is that 30-second commercial spots during the game cost $5.5 million.

Why? Because there are literally millions of eyeballs glued to the screen to see them. And people are trained to actually watch these commercials. Where else does that happen?

The lesson for you, of course, is to start building your own audience — preferably an email list. Get intentional, even aggressive about it.

Your list (and the interest+trust you’ve earned from it) is your greatest asset as a business owner.

2. Focus on entertainment value (which makes #1 easier)

This is about both the game and the commercials.

All those millions of people watch because they want to be entertained. That’s really the only benefit they get from watching — especially for people who didn’t have parties this year.

People have been conditioned to pay attention to advertising messages during the Super Bowl because they’re designed to be entertaining.

How profitable they are is debatable (and in many cases impossible to determine).

But there’s no debate that entertaining marketing messages CAN be profitable. In fact, I’d argue that pretty much all entrepreneurs would benefit from adding some entertainment value to their marketing… and a majority are actively hurting themselves by neglecting to do so.

People have better things to do than be bored by your marketing in 2021

3. Leverage the “love-hate” in your target audience

The moment I realized the game was today was when my next door neighbor told me “I hope Brady loses tonight. I’m tired of that guy.

A good percentage of Super Bowl viewers felt the same way.

That love-to-hate character is in itself entertaining. People will pay attention to your message if you talk to them about something or someone they’re ready to see eat some AstroTurf.

(I’d bet that 50% of the money Floyd Mayweather’s made in the past 5 years is from people who were hoping to see him get knocked out. His anti-fans have put millions of dollars in his pockets.)

Who’s the bad guy you can trash talk in your marketing to keep engaged — and spending money?

Think about it. Then do something with it.

Have a productive day.

P.S. It’s kinda weird I forgot about the game, considering Inbox X-Factor focuses on turning current events into email ideas. But I look more for the less obvious stories.

Anyone can tell you to write an email about the Super Bowl. 

But how many people are showing you how to write an email about the couple who got married underwater in India last week?

GoDaddy’s Super Bowl Ads Poured at Least $4 Million Down the Toilet

Advertising during the Super Bowl, GoDaddy “spent at least $660 on each new customer… to get what they hope to add up to $54.30 each by 2015.

In his Copywriter’s Roundtable today, John Forde wrote:

You remember, I’m sure, that I joined the legions that trashed one of the “GoDaddy” Super Bowl ads.

You know the one, where a computer nerd sucks face with supermodel Bar Refaeli to prove something or other. I hated it. And so did a lot of people.

I praised GoDaddy’s other ad, where an international cabal of disenchanted wives and girlfriends chided their men for not acting on the online ideas that might have made them rich.

This, I thought, communicated the promise.

But ultimately, of course, you’ll also remember that the big question about ALL the ads was whether it was “worth it.”

Well, at least with GoDaddy, now we have some data.

As many wrote in to tell me, it turns out that the day after the Super Bowl, GoDaddy’s new customer sign ups went through the roof.

In a single day, they added approximately 10,000 new customers. That certainly sounds like a coup, yes?

But is it time for me to grab the ketchup and my crow-eating utensils? Maybe not yet.

The folks over at Yahoo Finance did some math. Considering typical domain renewals and other factors, the estimated lifetime value per customer works out to about $54.30.

That means those new Monday sign ups are worth about $540,000 over the next couple years. (Again, an estimate, but a fair one.)

Thing is, each 30-second commercial — not counting any production costs or post-commercial mouthwash for Ms. Refaeli — cost them $3.75 million.

So, to get $540,000 in lifetime value out of those first 10,000 customers… they spent $7.5 million.

Looking at it another way, GoDaddy spent has already spent at least $660 on each new customer… to get what they hope to add up to $54.30 each by 2015.

So, asks Yahoo Finance, what if the smooch-heard-round-the-world lingers a bit longer, with the media coverage and all?

Even if the net result is another 50,000 new customers from the two ads, the same lifetime value puts the cost per new customer at $150.

$150 to get $54.30 in return still isn’t a great deal, any way you slice it. For GoDaddy, that would still add up to a $4.7 million loss.

But hey, at least the actor got to make out with what might be considered a super-babe on national TV, right?

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I highly recommend that you visit John’s website at http://copywritersroundtable.com.

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