Des Moines Register
02-03-07
Local advertisers hope spots score big during Super Bowl
KCCI charges about $8,000 for 30 seconds
By PATT JOHNSON
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Gene Phillips is hoping that 30 seconds of fame Sunday will pay off big for his
new mortgage broker business.
The West Des Moines businessman is spending about $20,000 for TV time on
three Iowa stations during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
"We couldn't see a more effective way to get our company name out there," said
Phillips, who launched his online business, Iowa Lenders Compete, this week.
"This is the perfect avenue for us to get our message out across Iowa."
Known as much for the clever commercials as it is the actual football game, the
Super Bowl is expected to fetch millions of viewers this year. National advertising
spots are going for an estimated $2.6 million per 30-second commercial that
could be seen by an estimated 90 million people.
Phillips is part of an exclusive club on Super Bowl Sunday. KCCI had only 15 ad
slots to sell during the game and the postgame show, said Dave Porepp, general
sales manager at the station, who would not disclose the advertisers.
The price for Super Bowl ads is about $8,000 each, four times the normal price of
$2,000, the rate the station normally charges for 30 seconds during one of its
popular shows such as "CSI," Porepp said.
With close to half of all television sets in the Des Moines-metro area tuned into
the Super Bowl, which airs locally on CBS affiliate KCCI, channel 8, Sunday,
Phillips' brief ad will potentially be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers. He
also is running the ad on KGAN in Cedar Rapids and KMEG in Sioux City, both
CBS stations airing the Super Bowl.
The investment for a local ad will usually likely pay off for companies, said Kay
Palan, an associate professor of marketing at Iowa State University.
"People do sit and watch the ads," she said. "It's an opportunity for a company to
get its name out there."
Super Bowl advertising is best used for brand identity, said Todd Senne,
president of Trilix Marketing Group in Urbandale. "It's not really for putting out
pricing or for selling a product," he said. "It's all about heightening awareness for
a product."
Senne expects viewership locally to be higher this year because two Midwest
teams - Chicago and Indianapolis - are facing off, and because of an Iowa
connection: Former University of Iowa players Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark
play for the Colts.
"Local companies will want to take advantage of the large local viewership," said
Senne, whose company annually polls local folks about their favorite Super Bowl
ads.
Businesses most likely to spend the big bucks for an ad in the big game are
those with products that appeal to a male audience like fitness equipment,
sporting goods, cars and trucks, Palan said. Even Phillips' mortgage broker
company will draw interest from younger adult, male viewers looking at buying a
home, she said.
For the majority of local businesses, the price of a Super Bowl ad is too rich.
"I'd rather buy 10 $1,000 ads instead of one $10,000 and get the exposure 10
times," said Jim Bintner, general sales manager at Charles Gabus Ford.
While his 30 seconds will be a costly proposition, Phillips said he expects it to
pay off almost immediately with hits to the company's Web site,
www.iowalenderscompete.com.
"Our main purpose is to get our name out there," he said.
Will his ad be clever or funny in the tradition of the national ads? "Funny costs
money," he said.
Reporter Patt Johnson can be reached at (515) 284-8367 or
pjohnson@dmreg.com