[ad_1]
The Buccanners weren’t the only team to win the Super Bowl (sorry…spoilers) as Reddit ran the shortest ad of the night but like achieved being the most talked about one.
During one of Americas most viewed sporting events, a few paragraphs appeared on screen for a total of five seconds bearing the unmistakable logo of the Reddit alien. Unless you’re an expert speed reader, many had to stop the broadcast and rewind until they hit the ad again and pausing it.
The few paragraphs were a message from Reddit, making the point that while Super Bowl ads are expensive, people can accomplish anything when they get together for a cause.
“If you’re reading this, it means our bets paid off,” the message began.
“Big game spots are expensive so we couldn’t buy a full one. But we were inspired and decided to spend our entire marketing budget on 5 seconds of airtime. One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish just about anything when we come together around a common area,” it continued.
“Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on ‘tendies,’” the ad read.
“Powerful things happen when people rally around something they really care about. And there’s a place for that. It’s called Reddit,” it finished.
In a statement to CNN Business, Chief Marketing Officer Roxy Young said that spending its entire marketing budget on this one ad was not really part of the plan, but called this audible due to the inspiration given to them by the Reddit community.
“But we were so inspired by the power of our communities in recent weeks that we rallied to pull it together in just a few short days in collaboration with our agency partners at R/GA,” said Young. “I am really proud of what we were able to achieve with just five seconds and think it beautifully captures the heart of Reddit in our unique and brilliantly absurd tone.”
The “inspiration” Young is referring to, and indeed the “underdog” aspect discussed in the ad is a nod to the subreddit r/WallStreetBets which utilized modern technology and the average person day trading to rise the price of GameStop’s stock to new heights and damaging the elitist hedge fund managers that profit off of shorting stocks.
The ad is riding the wave of hype generated by the Wall Street revolt and they had better hope the ad pays off for them. A 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl costs around $5,500,000. What five seconds costs is currently unlisted, but it’s not likely that it was at all cheap.
[ad_2]
