E-Stamps Chooses Playoffs Over Super Bowl
E-Stamps, an online postage provider,on Tuesday said it was passing on high-priced Super Bowl advertising infavor of more, but less high-profile, ads during the football playoffs.
E-Stamps, an online postage provider, on Tuesday said it was passing on high-priced Super Bowl advertising in favor of more, but less high-profile, ads during the football playoffs.
In an environment in which dot-com advertisers have gotten major media attention for betting a huge percentage of revenues on Super Bowl ads, some companies are re-thinking what has become conventional wisdom, pulling out of Super Bowl commitments or crafting alternative strategies. Angeltips.com, a site that matches entrepreneurs with investors, recently dropped its plans to advertise on the big match-up in favor of running more ads on ABC over the coming year.
In E-Stamp’s case, the alternative plans include buying spots on the playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl, and later on prime-time shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20, as well as on cable stations.
“We didn’t think it made sense to dump millions of dollars into one national advertising spot during the Super Bowl,” says Ellen Perelman, senior director of marketing at E-Stamp.
The new campaign, crafted by agency Butler, Shine, and Stern, is entitled “Time-Saving Tips,” and depicts E-Stamp Internet postage as the answer to the problems of busy small business owners.
“We were given a brief to develop creative that busy small business owners could identify with, and to create a media schedule that reflects their viewing habits,” says Greg Stern, president of Butler, Shine and Stern.
This is the company’s second national campaign. Its first, with the theme “A Lot Can Happen When You Go Out To Buy Stamps,” was launched on October 25, 1999.
