Throughout our lifetime, we see thousands and thousands of commercials on television and posters on billboards. However, many people don’t realize exactly how much time, effort, and money is put into those. I for one, did not realize the extraordinary expenditure a company must incur to use these marketing tactics. According to Evangeline, many companies spend around $4 million dollar for a mere 30 second advertisement. Many people cannot even think of earning $4 million in a life time, so when I read that, it literally made my jaw drop. Why would companies spend millions on something so intangible and perishes in less than a minute? Reading this post made me extremely curious about how much do these major corporate entities actually spend on advertising each year.
As shown above, the amount that Apple and Samsung amongst other companies spend on advertising is astounding. In 2012, Samsung spent around $4,000 million. Although not crystal clear on the diagram, I estimate that Apple spends around $1,000 million on advertising each year. Now things are starting to make sense. For a measly $4 million dollars (yes I actually just described $4 million dollars as ‘measly’), these companies can capture ‘111 million spectators‘ attention and turn them into potential customers.
In response to the Oreo advertisement uploaded on Twitter, I just have to say, “well played Oreo, well played”. The creativity and timely response of the company is what I think is most important in marketing. By seizing this one-time opportunity with such a quick and creative response, the company can successfully appeal to its consumer base. As Evangeline said it best, “Although the profits associated with this particular move may not be measurable, the benefits brought to the brand and its image are undeniable.”
Here’s a totally irrelevant cute picture of a puppy to end us all off with a happy thought!
Sources:
Evangeline’s Blog
Samsung’s Advertisement Expenditure
2 Comments
The puppy was the cutest picture ever! With the rise of various forms of social media, do you think some companies will have better reach using that over traditional advertising? Any particular companies come to mind?
Hello Natalie, thanks for the comment!
I think the growing industry of social media is definitely impacting marketing significantly. The growing number of users who surf for information online instead of browsing through the traditional catalogues, yellow pages, etc is astonishing. I believe that every company has equal opportunity in advertising using social media. As long as the company is willing to invest and spend and develop a good marketing plan, it will be able to appeal to consumers. The most successful companies follow the technological trend closely. For example, the introduction of Facebook and Twitter in the past decade has conveniently allowed consumers to interact/follow a company closely and get news much quicker than reading a magazine.