You’re spending how much to run an ad during the Super Bowl?

In an article at CNN Money titled, “Are Super Bowl ads worth the money? With a 30-second spot said to cost as much as $2.6 million, some question the wisdom of advertising during the Super Bowl.” Paul R. La Monica tackles the pros and cons of spending several million dollars (don’t forget production costs for these ads) for a single airing of an ad.

Anheuser-Busch, Pepsico, Coca-Cola and General Motors are among those who have already made a committment to advertise. None of these companies has to worry about their Super Bowl ad bankrupting their company. However, Go Daddy and Sales Genie have a lot riding on this. Neither has the advertising budets available to other major players who are taking a gamble on advertising during Super Bowl XLI.

Yesterday I got an email from Sales Genie. It reads, “Watch Our Commercial from the Super Bowlâ„¢ Sunday, February 4! then visit Salesgenie.com® for 100 FREE sales leads and give us your feedback on our commercial. We don’t have talking lizards or Clydesdale horses, but we can make you rich. “

Here is a smaller player, a firm who is taking a HUGE multi million dollar gamble. They are WISELY trying to hedge that bet by mining their email list. However, instead of hyping their spectacular Super Bowl ad, Sales Genie has instead begun apologizing for not making their ad entertaining or “Super Bowl Worthy.”

In other words, Sales Genie has rented a mansion and they’re now planning to furnish said multi million dollar mansion with RTA furniture from Wal Mart.

Part of the benefit of advertising on the Super Bowl is the advanced press you get when you sign up to spend that kind of money ($8,500 per second to be exact!) on a 30 second ad. When you’re making that kind of investment, it just makes sense to create a memorable and compelling ad worthy of the dollars spent to air said ad. However, instead of going the extra mile, Sales Genie is apologizing in advance for not following protocol. “We don’t have talking lizards or Clydesdale horses, but we can make you rich.”

Boy, I hope their Super Bowl ad does a better job of selling their services than that. Unfortunately, they’ve given fair warning that it won’t. The email message almost has a begging quality to it. “PLEASE visit our web site. PLEASE click on our ad. We SO don’t want to be confronted with the possibility that spending $2.6 million on a single ad may have been a really, really BAD decision.”

The trials and tribulations of advertising on the Super Bowl are well documented. Blow outs happen more often than not, leaving advertisers paying a premium for audience figures which end up dropping exponentially as the end result becomes increasingly evident.

Often, the only hope an advertiser has at attracting viewers late in the game is with the promise of an especially entertaining ad. Go Daddy president Bob Parsons understands this.

Bob and his people spend a lot of time and effort creating a “memorable” Super Bowl worthy spot. Last year, Bob and his team got press coverage because it took 13 tries to finally reach a compromise with the network over what was “acceptable” for content for their Super Bowl ad. This year, Bob claims their third try was approved. Of course, Bob is allowing you to see the rejected spots. Why wouldn’t he? He’s invested time, effort and dollars into producing the spots, why not put them to work as the Media Frenzy develops around the spot.

Bob Parsons gets it. Sales Genie does not.

Bob Parsons is creating buzz and riding the wave while Sales Genie is preparing the life boats.