Like most years, the beer commercials are going to rule the much-anticipated Super Bowl advertisement extravaganza. This year, one company in particular is taking the competition to another level.
With the economy in the middle of a recession, Miller Brewing Co. has decided to forgo purchasing a 30-second commercial spot that would cost them up to $3 million to instead purchase a one-second spot.
Critics of this idea are wondering how on earth you can market a product in one second. While the idea seems ridiculous on the surface, Miller has created a campaign promoting it, causing so much buzz that the one-second ad could potentially be as monumental as Apple’s 1984 commercial.
Miller created a microsite found at www.1secondad.com where visitors can see the ads that “didn’t make the cut.” They are also running PPC advertising in the major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Live.com.
The initial press release announcing the one-second ad received over 1,200 diggs on Digg.com, and hundreds of Twitter users are discussing it (sure to be thousands as we get closer to the game). The idea was also discussed on one of the most popular podcasts, This Week in Tech. Even USA Today, MSNBC and many other major news outlets are talking about it. The publicity is just astounding.
Who knew one second could be worth so much?
Scott L on January 27, 2009
I like these spots so much I just might buy the beer – And I’m a Bud man. Great example of how to leverage a strong rolling campaign and find a way to do something different without scrapping good creative. Perfect casting too. Great stuff CP – now get to work losing that creepy Burger King creative.