A Red Herring managed fund was a AAPL shareholder a while back...
They say AAPL will advertise during the SB , plus aren't they advocating if one has a new product what better spot to intro it:
" Last year, the final episode of Seinfeld was the
Super Bowl of TV advertising. Advertisers paid
between US$1.5 and $1.7 million to buy a
30-second spot on the show.
With Seinfeld now in retirement, the Super Bowl
has reasserted itself as the year's biggest
TV-advertising bonanza. Fox, which is
broadcasting the game 31 January, is selling the
58 30-second spots available during game time
for $1.6 million a piece, for a total of about $93
million. In addition, Fox's seven-plus hours of
pregame and postgame coverage is a record,
and the commercial revenue from that is
estimated to boost the day's take to $140
million.
In an increasingly fractured mediascape, the
Super Bowl exists as the most dependable
eyeball aggregator, regularly attracting in the
range of 130 million viewers.
"It's become commonplace for advertisers to buy
time to kick off product launches or ad
campaigns or to use the spot as a culmination
of the previous year's campaign," said David
Bloom, VP of strategic planning at Eisner &
Associates, a Baltimore-based advertising
agency that conducts Super Bowl-related
surveys.
According to a survey Eisner & Associates
conducted before last year's Super Bowl, 7
percent of viewers planned to watch the game
specifically for the commercials. "This year, I
think the percentage could be even higher," says
Bloom. "Some of the potential combinations of
opponents aren't that appealing to the nonsports
aficionado. When that happens, more people
end up watching primarily because of the
commercials."
Companies planning to launch new products and
ad campaigns during this year's game include
Mars Candy, which is introducing a new crispy
version of M&Ms, and Pepsico, which is running
a spot featuring actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pitching
Pepsi One, the company's new no-cal soft drink.
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While no official list of advertisers has been
released, others who have reportedly purchased
spots during the game include Budweiser, 7-Up,
American Express -- featuring Jerry Seinfeld --
Southwest Airlines, First Union Bank, Federal
Express, Pizza Hut, World Wrestling
Federation, Visa, Mailboxes Etc., AT&T,
Nissan, Honda, Fritos, MasterCard, Volvo,
Universal Pictures, Apple, Monster.com, and
Hotjobs.com.
Monster.com (formerly Monster Board) and
Hotjobs.com are both online career-services
sites hoping to engender the notion that
employment is the Web's next killer app -- and
establish themselves as leaders in that market
space.
In 1997 and 1998, online car broker
Autobytel.com pioneered the e-commerce Super
Bowl brand-building strategy and found that in
addition to increasing consumer awareness
significantly, their Super Bowl spots also drove
actual transactions.
"Our servers lit up," said Anne Benvenuto,
Autobytel's senior vice president of marketing.
"In 1998, after our commercial aired at the end of
the first half, visits to our site were up 1,700
percent during halftime. Purchase request
activity was up 104 percent after halftime, and
78 percent after the game."
Monster.com is planning to run one pregame ad
and two during the game. The spots, which
reportedly will make people think of their original
career dreams and take stock of where they are
today, will kick off a year-long campaign.
Hotjobs.com, which has been publicizing its
Super Bowl participation on its Web site, will run
one spot. "We spent the last two years
generating tremendous amount of content on our
site, and now we'd like to reach out to
consumers," says Robert Liu, a company
spokesman. "With an estimated 130 million
viewers, the Super Bowl was the most logical
event to get our brand out to the consumer."
Corporate communications flow in two directions
now, even when they originate via old media like
TV. As it did last year, ESPN.com will be
offering viewers a chance to rate which Super
Bowl commercials they liked best after the
game. In 1998, the Budweiser lizards were the
overwhelming favorites, collecting over 17,000 of
the 25,000 votes cast.
wired.com
Mr J didn't miss Seinfeld's farewell show , can't imagine that he would let this one slip by !
Jim K. |
