With Super Bowl ad fever featuring heavily on most marketing shaped websites today, there is much to choose from as brands point their millions at the most expensive TV real estate in the world. The creative that is crammed into these oh so costly ad slots ($4m for 30 seconds) is inevitably of varying quality, but it was the theme from one of the more high production entries which got me to thinking.
Namely, that of remote phone charging paraphernalia provider Mophie, which suggested through its gameday commercial that God has a cell phone (obviously), and that a low battery on said device (happens to the best of us) could signal the end of the world (questionable).
This might seem a little far-fetched, but the sentiment is right because we all know how dependent we’ve become on these small blocks of telecommunications wizardry. While the first screen still commands the biggest bucks (and whether Super Bowl ad money is well spent is to be better debated here and rather than on The Wall), the second screen is clearly now so important that to be without it does sometimes feel vaguely apocalyptic.
So it is fitting then, that in the week when the number of views, likes and shares of #SB49-related content went through the roof, it was in fact the financial results of the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer that really beggared belief.
Apple announced that it had revenue of $74.6bn in the last quarter of 2014, ($18bn of which was profit). There are two supporting statistics that put the enormity of that figure firmly into context.
The first is that Apple sold 34,000 iPhones every hour in October, November and December last year. Staggering.
The second is that Apple’s revenue in one quarter was more than internet giant Google made in all of 2014. Astounding.
The infinite loop of successful products from Apple is keeping it firmly at the top of the mobile pile. And with able support from the likes Samsung and rising star Xiaomi, the second screen continues its march in numbers.
It’s not as if we really need reminding, but the relationship between the creators of content and the creators of platforms continues to fascinate. Events like the Super Bowl are getting better and better at driving engagement, but it’s the tech companies that are also driving how we consume and absorb the razzamatazz.
Super Bowl L (that’s L for 50, not Large) could in fact be the perfect storm as it heads right into the tech world’s backyard and the home stadium of the San Francisco 49ers. And if the marketing team at Apple run out of real estate for their product-led billboards (not likely), they could always use their Q4 profits to buy 4,500 Super Bowl ad slots.
Jake Sargent, head of digital at Pitch
As featured on The Wall: http://wallblog.co.uk/2015/02/02/super-bowl-fever-takes-hold-but-apple-stays-in-charge/
