To add to the
excitement I had heard that my local GE Turbine plant was going to be featured
in an advertisement. GE is a major factor in the rich history of Schenectady,
NY so I was really looking forward to seeing it. So when “GE Turbine
Manufacturing Schenectady, NY” pops up on my television screen I was
immediately emotionally invested. I’m thinking this place is literally two
minutes from my house, this is so cool. I found myself reviewing each
image change to see if I could recognize a person or background setting. I was
becoming engaged with the audio as the employees interviewed tell me that
“without the stuff that” they make there I wouldn’t be able to flip on my lights,
and that turbines power the world, and that their jobs provide them with a
sense of reward because they know they are making a difference globally.
Wow I think, this is all amazing, I didn’t know that. Then another
employee comes on and says “When people think about GE they typically don’t
think about beer.” Wait…. What? You’ve got that brother, I have never
associated beer and GE in my mind…ever!
I am then informed that the beer Budweiser makes is kept cold and
the brewing process powered by turbines. Now flows the thoughts of that is
freaking awesome and has a commercial ever dropped so much knowledge on me
before? But that’s not what I say out loud. After all those thoughts careen
through my head what I actually say out loud to my fellow Super Bowl partiers
is, “Wow, that was genius of those two big names to partner for an advertising
spot during the Super Bowl. They must’ve saved a ton of money by doing that.”
So is this the future of
advertising for the Super Bowl?
USA Today states that “Some 54
commercials that cost upwards of $3.5 million per 30-second slot were in the NBC
broadcast watched by more than 100 million viewers.” The GE/Budweiser ad is 46
seconds long so for the sake of this discussion let’s say that it cost $3.5
million and that the cost was split between the two brands. (Yes it’s possible
that GE took on the whole cost and gave Budweiser a shout out, but let’s assume
they split it.) That would mean that they each just saved $1.75 million
dollars in their advertising budget and now they can take that money and put it
towards another commercial that features just them or another collaborative
effort. It’s possible that this partnering technique has been done before, but
personally I can’t remember any.
Granted this pairing makes a lot
of sense because there is a cause and effect relationship in that it’s the turbines
that help to create the beer and cool it, but does this mean that next year
there will be more partnership type commercials? Yes Chevy and Pepsi didn’t
help to create each other, but will there be a humorous spot of someone driving
a Chevy truck ad spot that features Pepsi? Perhaps GoDaddy.com will add the
green female M&M to their lineup of gorgeous women? It will be very
interesting to see if this style of partnership advertising takes off.
Love this commercial, too! And, I think the line "We make the power that makes the XYZ" has definite meme potential.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting blog. Some points shared in this blog are very good… If you want to know about promotional marketing visit Experiential Marketing Firm.
ReplyDelete