Social Media
Massive response for a miniature ad
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 21st, 2009
Today’s blog post comes from guest blogger Alex Gelhar. Show him some love and comment below.
This morning a coworker forwarded me an article about Miller High Life buying a 1 second advertisement during Super Bowl next weekend (Feb. 2). My first thought was quite literally, “That’s crazy,” but as soon as that gut reaction subsided, I was intrigued.
I wanted to know how a 1 second ad could be effective, and after following the link in the article to the promotional website 1secondad.com, I found out.
The site features rejected takes of everyone’s favorite beer man Windell Middlebrooks filling his one second of fame with everything from catch phrases to painting a picture of the Miller High Life can. Also, there were longer videos of Windell riffing on the ludicrous prices associated with the Super Bowl, from tickets to concessions to advertisements.
Why’s this effective? The Super Bowl is renowned for having the greatest commercials. There are even websites devoted to rating the best Super Bowl ads.
Yet with the reported cost of a 30 second advertisement totaling $3 million dollars for 2009, MillerCoors has found an effective and possibly cheaper method of promoting their brand.
On the MillerCoors website, Senior Brand Manager Kevin Oglesby explains the logic behind the miniature ad.
“Just like our consumers, High Life strives to make smart choices. One second should be plenty of time to remind viewers that Miller High Life is common sense in a bottle.”
That isn’t to say MillerCoors paid pennies for the ad. They had to drop tons of cash for the shoots, website creation, and eventual placement – even if it was less than $3 million. However, the fact that it’s already being hyped online and generating tons of buzz for a commercial is astounding - a 1 second commercial no less. Google the ad or check the Twitter chatter if you need more proof.
In addition to the ad itself, the pre-game publicity and viral response will score MillerCoors tons of attention. For example, while walking around the office I heard “Miller Time!” and other catchphrases echo out of offices, along with subsequent chuckles. And all of this promotion is costing MillerCoors nothing.
While other corporations drain millions in online banner advertising, MillerCoors has embraced the future and accepted new media into their marketing plans. Through PR, promotional websites, and a viral campaign, more people will probably be playing “Where’s Windell?” on February 2 instead of watching the other commercials or even the game for that matter.
This IS social media at its finest.
If this campaign proves successful, and I think it will, it might help usher in a new era of corporate marketing.
Movies have already embraced this trend, as films like The Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder used multiple websites to promote their eventual box office smashes (check out whysoserious.com and rainofmadness.com for examples).
Is it too bold to assume stuffy old corporations that resist change like the plague could embrace such technological advancements? Who knows? But they better decide soon, or risk losing their brand recognition amidst the tides of the recession.
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One Response to “Massive response for a miniature ad”
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January 23rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
This is fantastic. Brilliant. It fits in perfectly with their “budget” messaging. Each spot leaves you wanting more, waiting for that next second to pop up so you can make sense of it.
But it hinges on Miller’s strong brand identity–the colors, the logo, the delivery man are all quintessential Miller identifiers. Without that strong brand recognition, these spots would be meaningless and a waste of time.
They also capture the old-school essence of great taglines: “Miller Time” and “Champagne of Beers.” The perfect blending of old message and new media.