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FATE V FUTURE

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FUTUREBOARD

🔼 Temperatures across the Alps. Non-native cactus plants are now blooming on Swiss mountainsides »»

🔽 The English county of Cheshire, near Manchester and Liverpool, and the UK itself. Pharma giant AstraZeneca dropped plans to build a huge new factory there, calling the UK’s high business tax rates part of the reason why. It’s going to Ireland instead. The UK’s chancellor publicly agreed with AstraZeneca’s logic »»

💬 “People went nuts.” As an experiment, the DJ David Guetta got AI to write an Eminem-style verse about rave music, and then used AI again to deepfake Em’s voice. It worked a little too well »»

🛩️ The 36 most beautiful places in Italy »»

👗 Why is everything Prada so puffy these days? »»

💎 Tommy Hilfiger’s selling his Palm Beach estate two-and-a-half weeks after buying it. It’s yours for US$48m »»

QUICKFATES

Your one-stop, no-judgment guide to Gen Z slang »»

Next-gen loyalty programs keep customers coming back as restaurant traffic declines »»

Rihanna shared that she changed her Super Bowl halftime show setlist “39 times” »»

Tonal, an at-home fitness startup, is raising capital at less than a third of its previous valuation. (They’re also considering replacing their CEO, who founded the firm) »»

Four ways to turn a bad day around »»

The astonishing transformation of Austin »»

AI's dirty secret »»

AI’s other dirty secret »»

LinkedIn’s having a moment. Layoffs are a big reason why »»

The crypto exchange Kraken agreed to end its staking operation, and pay a US$30m fine to the US SEC… »»

…while crypto insiders think this could just be the beginning »»

US companies are mining the Finnish language for new startup names »»

Expats have flooded CDMX. Has their arrival changed Mexico City’s art scene? »»

Destroying ‘forever chemicals’ could become a multibillion-dollar industry »»

Is the iPhone’s ‘Made in India’ era about to begin? »» The newsletter's writer owns shares of Apple

India has found a major deposit of lithium, suddenly making it a major player in batteries and EVs »»

Reviewing Lufthansa’s newest and best-ever business class »»

TikTok-ers are sharing their negative experiences with online mental health care »»

A record 18.8m workers are predicted to no show to work Monday, thanks to the Super Bowl »»

London City airport wants to add weekend flights »»

DEEPFATE 🏈 SUPER V SOCIAL

Super Bowl audience numbers are trending downwards. But the cost of a 30 second ad buy keeps going up. Why?

IN THE WEEKS leading up to the Super Bowl, there was a lot of chat over the cost of advertising during the game.

• It was US$7m for 30 seconds of airtime, a new high.

• That led plenty of folks across the marketing landscape —from the world’s most popular YouTuber, MrBeast, to experienced SEOs and random influencer agents— to post some “better offers.”

• They essentially promised whichever brands were listening a better ROI for that seven mil, in a light heartened —and also serious— way.

BUT. THE CALCULUS behind a Super Bowl ad buy is way more complex than that. 

• An old boss of mine used to call the Super Bowl “America’s last campfire.”

• As he put it, “it's the only event left that we, as a nation, still watch together.”

• And this was a dozen years ago, when Netflix was still mailing DVDs, Instagram was in its infancy, and way, way before TikTok took over the globe.

• In other words, as our media landscape becomes ever more fractured, it’s become much harder to command a simultaneous audience in America for, well, anything. The Super Bowl is all that’s left.

• So, when it comes to buying air time during the Super Bowl, there’s something at play here that’s much more important than CPM, or cost for every thousand viewers.

• Clout.

NO MATTER WHERE you are, we are all living through a wild sociological experiment: the end of mainstream pop culture.

• Look around: all of our info, entertainment, and communications has been divided into narrower and narrower sub streams.

• This is a trend that only becomes more pronounced as audiences become younger and younger.

• Hence, US$7m 30 second Super Bowl ad buys.

• But here’s the rub.

• It’s worth it.

ZOOM OUT: WHAT larger flex is there for a brand than a Super Bowl ad?

• Many marketers really value the way a Super Bowl ad buy signals their brand’s scale.

• And few, if any, other instruments can help a brand garner valuable clout as quickly and as efficiently as a Super Bowl ad buy can.

• Think about it: just being there, alongside the GMs, PepsiCos, Procter & Gambles and AB InBevs of the world, says a lot, to a lot.

• And if the ad is good, the brand enjoys the added benefit of being the topic of countless conversations and recaps in the days after game.

• There are more efficient CPMs out there, obviously.

• But if you’re running a brand that’s ready to be recognized alongside the world’s most famous ones (but isn’t quite there yet), few other marketing tactics can level you up like a Super Bowl ad buy can.

LOOK FOR 30 second buys during the Super Bowl to be even more expensive next year.

• Even especially if this year’s big game viewership is down.

Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.