It's imperative to place your brand in the proper locations to reach the right people, in the right place, at the right time through a media buying agency. What does selling real estate and using media to sell your brand have in common? It's all about one thing: Location, location, location. You don't have to work for a top media buying agency to understand that context is critical when it comes to brand placement. If you need evidence of the importance of location, look no further than this year's Super Bowl -- where one global beverage giant is preparing to go all in to maximize the effects of its advertising campaign.

Anheuser Busch's massive Super Bowl bet

The Super Bowl is the most significant betting event of the year. It's estimated that Americans bet nearly $5 billion on the game annually. Global beer giant Anheuser-Busch is making its own massive wager on this year's Super Bowl, planning one of the largest ever media buys. The brewer announced it has purchased five-and-one-half minutes' worth of airtime, during which it will show commercials for five of its brands and seven of its products. That's an impressive outlay, given that the average cost of a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl has risen to roughly $5 million. The Super Bowl, in fact, is so important to brands and the advertising industry that it represents 2.5% of all network broadcast advertising for an entire year. Anheuser-Busch's Super Bowl advertising expenditure will be roughly 30% higher in 2019 than in previous years. The company believes the increase is justified due to the extraordinary nature of the event; the Super Bowl regularly draws more than 100 million viewers in the United States.

The Super Bowl...of ads

For advertisers, however, huge viewership is only part of the equation. The Super Bowl, in recent years, has become more than a football championship; it's also a showcase for the ad industry's very best work. Super Bowl commercials have become near-compulsory viewing for many Americans, as brands save their most compelling and engaging creative work for Super Bowl Sunday. The high quality of Super Bowl ads has made the event perhaps the only occasion where people are actually eager to watch advertising. Anheuser-Busch knows this. The company's U.S. CMO, Marcel Marcondes, recently told Adweek that “attention is the new currency and (the) Super Bowl is such a unique moment in culture when people are paying attention, watching TV and more than that, they are willing and looking forward to watching TV commercials. So for that reason, we decided to bet big." In other words, it's all about location strategy: Reaching the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and when they are in the right frame of mind -- all accomplished through utilizing a smart media buying agency.

Why location is critical for brands

Anheuser-Busch is wisely betting that the benefits of Super Bowl advertising -- and the singular nature of the event -- will justify their $50 million ad spend. Yet few businesses, of course, have the resources to buy even the shortest Super Bowl ad. That doesn't matter, however, as virtually any enterprise can reap the advantages of brand placement in the proper media locations. Even if you scale down from the Super Bowl to advertising on a local network affiliate, the principle remains the same: Find the location, time, and context where viewers or listeners overlap with your customers or audience. If you don't have media buying experience, that might seem like a tall order. However, a high-quality media buying agency can partner with businesses to precisely identify and plan the best possible media locations for ad spending.

The takeaway

At BIGEYE, we specialize in helping businesses connect with audiences through compelling campaigns and finely targeted media buying. If you'd like to derive maximum value from your next media campaign, we urge you to reach out to us today.