At an estimated $5.5 million for a 30-second advertisement, Super Bowl commercials cost a pretty penny. One way to make it more affordable? Air a 5-second commercial instead.
That’s what digital platform Reddit chose to do, airing a 5-second ad just before the start of CBS’s halftime show during the 2021 Super Bowl.
What just happened? pic.twitter.com/DypRp6DeQt
— Reddit (@reddit) February 8, 2021
“Wow, this actually worked. If you’re reading this, it means our bet paid off,” read the text-heavy ad, which had to be paused to read in full. “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.
The ad made reference to Reddit’s role in the GameStop stock market kerfuffle, when users of the subreddit r/WallStreetBets forced a short squeeze of GameStop stock that temporarily sent its value