The best ad in this year’s Super Bowl aired after the game and cost $0
You won’t find it in the “Best Super Bowl Ads” Lists
For those who are not so interested in Football (myself included), Super Bowl is the yearly event when two things happen:
- A world-famous singer or group performs during the half-time show, sometimes legendary (kudos to Queen B) and sometimes miserably (sorry Chris Martin).
- A bunch of ridiculously expensive ads air throughout the television broadcast.
In regards to the 2nd, this year’s ads are available online for everyone to check and make up their minds on which one is their favorite:
- Was it the Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen election-paroded Bud light ad?
- Was it Christofer Walken with his always-classy-but-fancy manners in a Kia commercial?
- Or was it Drake starring in an inception-style ad for a T-mobile commercial? (Actually this one is very funny - I loved it).
Well, IMHO, the best ad of this year’s Super Bowl was none of the above. In fact, it was an ad that aired no earlier than the next day and cost no more than $0 for its production.
I am talking about this particular Facebook post
Yes, once again Beyonce (with whom BTW chances are that you are a friend of a friend of a friend of her on Facebook) posted in her verified account on Facebook a thank you note informing about her stay in an Airbnb mansion during her stay in San Fransisco this weekend.
Ok, so Beyonce publicly endorsed Airbnb and used its service; why is this so big deal?
Well, for a few reasons:
- As you can see over 640K people actually read the post and engaged with it in just one day.
- Compare this number to the GRPs that tv stations use to measure their ads effectiveness.
In which case are we sure that the viewer actually saw our advertisement and interacted with it?
We are talking about the internet here where everything is measured, even “virallity” so that’s good news for any - digital - advertiser.
Also, first and foremost, Beyonce’s post has done a better job than an ad for another significant reason:
In a world where only 4% of Americans think the marketing industry behaves with integrity, Airbnb did not produced a flashy expensive ad with a celebrity telling wonderful things about its service. Instead, it had one of these celebrities to actually use its service giving the chance to its target audience to wonder:
“If Beyonce (actually) did it, then why not me?”
And that’s worth more of many Super Bowl ads.
PS1. Does it matter that Beyonce stayed in a 12-acre estate mansion? Absolutely not.
What are your views on the topic? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
