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Ideas. Insights. Inspiration.

Writer's pictureDavid Pullara

ADdicted: The 5-Second Super Bowl Ad


A 30-second national ad in this year's Super Bowl cost $5.5 million US.


Most companies can't afford that.


reddit, a "social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website" claims they couldn't afford that... although as the New York Times noted, "That may have been a bit of a stretch: A fund-raising round in 2019 valued Reddit, which is owned by a group of venture capital firms, employees and other shareholders, at $3 billion."


So rather than pay to run and air a 30-second commercial, reddit decided to spend their "entire marketing budget" on a 5-second ad.


They made a brave bet that 5-seconds would be enough time to capture people's attention enough so that those that could would "rewind, pause, and read" the ad, and that those who couldn't would seek-out the ad to understand the flash of orange they saw.


It worked.


The reddit ad was among the most searched Super Bowl commercials on Google on Sunday night, and the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review ranked it the 6th most effective ad in this year's game... far ahead of many other ads that cost significantly more to produce and air.


"I don't have the budget" is an excuse used when creativity and bravery are in short supply.


- dp

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