Super Bowl XL was last night. Advertisers paid between $2.5 and $2.6 Million Dollars for 30 seconds. Can you imagine writing a check like that...
Pay to the order of: ABC
$2,500,000.00

Now that's a lot of zeros to write on a check! $5 Millions Dollars an hour isn't too shabby. Maybe we're not charging enough for memberships here on NetworkInAustin.com?

With very few exceptions I actually watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. That and it makes for a good excuse to drink beer, and eat food that I really shouldn't eat. As a guy who invested over 3 hours in watching commercials on a Sunday night I must say that I was disappointed. Most of the commercials were pretty lame at best. Although I will admit that I liked the Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale pony who secretly got a little help from some more experienced friends. I feel like that pony a lot of the time.

All of this got me to thinking. These companies are spending two and a half million dollars just for the air time of these commercials. That doesn't include the creative work, talent, production costs, etc. This probably means that the average 30 second spot is costing between $3 Million and $4 Million Dollars. Is it worth it? Probably not, I don't even remember 90% of the commercials. Those that I do remember don't make me any more likely to buy the product. I'm certainly not planning on buying a Whopper because a bunch of women dressed like hamburger parts jumped on top of each other.

What if these companies invested that money in relationships? How much could you do for your top customers with 3 Million bucks? I'll bet you could setup one heck of a referral program with that kind of dough.

Happy networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com