Hey, guys, remember the halcyon days of January, 2000, when a bunch of dot com companies dropped scads of money on commercials that would run during the Super Bowl? One current-day dot com seems unwilling to wait until this year's big game, instead launching an ad campaign to run during the World Series. Will that strategy pay off better in 2015 than it did 15 years ago?
This time around, the commercial-buyer is Twitter, which had a hefty round of layoffs two weeks ago and yesterday announced slower-than-expected growth and lowered revenue predictions for next quarter. The ad, which ran during last night's World Series game, is part of an “integrated marketing campaign” that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Tuesday's earnings call. Here it is:
According to The Verge, the ad is entitled "Post-Season," and is intended "to let targeted segments of potential users see the stuff that's on Twitter every day." Which you'd think those folks might have already considered, but whatever!
The ad was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, the ad agency that, according to Ad Week, created those Airbnb ads we all liked so much! (You know the ones I'm talking about.) So, I guess, it sure could be worse?
That same agency was also behind Apple's ground-breaking "1984" ad, which aired during that year's Super Bowl, thus bringing us back to Super Bowl XXXIV. I had forgotten that the St. Louis Rams battled the Tennessee Titans in the 2000 game, but I sure did remember that during the event, 19 online startups bought ads, and eight of those crashed and burned shortly thereafter. (Guess who made one of that game's most infamous ads, for Pets.com? TBWA\Chiat\Day, again! They're the Forrest Gump of tech advertising!)
Of course, the World Series isn't the Super Bowl, and their ad rates prove it: According to Advertising Age, "the going rate for a 30-second commercial in the World Series is around $545,000 a pop." Compare that to the $5 million-for-30-seconds Forbes reports Super Bowl 50 will ask, and a World Series ad seems like a bargain. (In case you're curious, rates for ads that play during the broadcast of high-rated comedy or drama series vary greatly, from $155,727 for a spot during The Simpsons to $521,794 during Empire, reports Variety.)
Though Twitter ran a TV ad during a NASCAR event in 2012, that was a one-off, making this the company's first full-on TV campaign. Though Twitter declined to tell The Verge how much they'd spent on the ad, they did say that they expect them to air "regularly in prime time," giving us all something new through which to fast-forward.
Previously: Twitter Stock Takes Another Dip After Earnings Call, And Square's Numbers Aren't Great Either