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David Jones, founder You & Mr. Jones

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With NBC charging a record-setting $4.5 million for 30-second ads, it's no wonder brands are using digital media to either complement or replace a Super Bowl spot this year.  But how far does $4.5 million go in buying digital Big Game ads?

...Never mind the cost of strategy, creative development and production.

Let's assume $4.5MM for airtime, then add a few hundred thousand (maybe $1MM) for production, another hundred thousand or more for the idea (agency time), possibly a few hundred thousand for consumer research. Suddenly your Super Bowl spot costs a lot more than $4.5MM.

Then let's take Adweek's comparison a step further: It's likely any of their alternative media strategies would also require production investment -- but likely not to the level of a national broadcast spot (in terms of talent usage, etc.). Agency time spent to develop ideas is probably equal between $4.5MM spent on a Super Bowl spot versus $4.5MM spent in social. I'm assuming strategy and consumer insight work is also likely the same investment.

At a very generalized level, a client is going to pay more, overall, to ship a $4.5MM Super Bowl spot than a $4.5MM social media effort.

Which leads to ROI. I suspect the short term results of investing in the Super Bowl are brighter and more enticing than results of $4.5MM spent in social. You'll get the spike. But likely not the sustain. The advantage of investing $4.5MM in social would be over time: In addition to the ability to listen and optimize, you'd spread returns over several quarters, possibly years -- building relationships. These are returns on investment you can't and wouldn't expect to gain from any TV commercial.

In other words, the comparisons are curious but not direct.

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