Des Moines Register s7

Des Moines Register 02-03-07

Local advertisers hope spots score big during Super Bowl

KCCI charges about $8,000 for 30 seconds

By PATT JOHNSON REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER

Gene Phillips is hoping that 30 seconds of fame Sunday will pay off big for his new mortgage broker business.

The West Des Moines businessman is spending about $20,000 for TV time on three Iowa stations during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

"We couldn't see a more effective way to get our company name out there," said Phillips, who launched his online business, Iowa Lenders Compete, this week. "This is the perfect avenue for us to get our message out across Iowa."

Known as much for the clever commercials as it is the actual football game, the Super Bowl is expected to fetch millions of viewers this year. National advertising spots are going for an estimated $2.6 million per 30-second commercial that could be seen by an estimated 90 million people.

Phillips is part of an exclusive club on Super Bowl Sunday. KCCI had only 15 ad slots to sell during the game and the postgame show, said Dave Porepp, general sales manager at the station, who would not disclose the advertisers.

The price for Super Bowl ads is about $8,000 each, four times the normal price of $2,000, the rate the station normally charges for 30 seconds during one of its popular shows such as "CSI," Porepp said.

With close to half of all television sets in the Des Moines-metro area tuned into the Super Bowl, which airs locally on CBS affiliate KCCI, channel 8, Sunday, Phillips' brief ad will potentially be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers. He also is running the ad on KGAN in Cedar Rapids and KMEG in Sioux City, both CBS stations airing the Super Bowl.

The investment for a local ad will usually likely pay off for companies, said Kay Palan, an associate professor of marketing at Iowa State University.

"People do sit and watch the ads," she said. "It's an opportunity for a company to get its name out there." Super Bowl advertising is best used for brand identity, said Todd Senne, president of Trilix Marketing Group in Urbandale. "It's not really for putting out pricing or for selling a product," he said. "It's all about heightening awareness for a product."

Senne expects viewership locally to be higher this year because two Midwest teams - Chicago and Indianapolis - are facing off, and because of an Iowa connection: Former University of Iowa players Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark play for the Colts.

"Local companies will want to take advantage of the large local viewership," said Senne, whose company annually polls local folks about their favorite Super Bowl ads.

Businesses most likely to spend the big bucks for an ad in the big game are those with products that appeal to a male audience like fitness equipment, sporting goods, cars and trucks, Palan said. Even Phillips' mortgage broker company will draw interest from younger adult, male viewers looking at buying a home, she said.

For the majority of local businesses, the price of a Super Bowl ad is too rich.

"I'd rather buy 10 $1,000 ads instead of one $10,000 and get the exposure 10 times," said Jim Bintner, general sales manager at Charles Gabus Ford.

While his 30 seconds will be a costly proposition, Phillips said he expects it to pay off almost immediately with hits to the company's Web site, www.iowalenderscompete.com.

"Our main purpose is to get our name out there," he said.

Will his ad be clever or funny in the tradition of the national ads? "Funny costs money," he said.

Reporter Patt Johnson can be reached at (515) 284-8367 or [email protected]