What’s a Good Martech Investment Instead of a Super Bowl Ad?

Note: This blog was originally written in January 2020.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Whether you’re thrilled or crushed you won’t see the Patriots—say what?—in the big game this year, you’re bound to be entertained by at least a few exceedingly pricey commercials, which are estimated to sell for roughly $175,000 per second. Yup, according to CNBC’s estimates, it’ll cost a company a total of $5.25 million for 30 seconds of advertising this year, which is up from $37,500-$42,500 per spot back in 1967, the year of the first Super Bowl.

In celebration of this Sunday’s Super Bowl LIV, a question was posed on social media by Scott Brinker, editor of chiefmartec.com, regarding ways companies can effectively use their marketing budgets other than dropping a hefty sum on a Super Bowl commercial:

Piggybacking off of Brinker’s question, we turned to Bruce Brien, Uptempo’s SVP of global solutions engineering, on what he believes would be the most effective martech investment. 

Although he prefaced his answer by noting that the size of the organization and target audience is a “major determining factor” when it comes to what a company should or can get for $5 million, he focused nonetheless on investing in a solid foundation.

“I would start shoring up the stack foundation and then building out toward more advanced capabilities,” Brien suggests.

To achieve a strong foundation from the start, he said, look at your data hygiene, including data as a service, and ensure that your “basic execution systems are where they need to be” when it comes to a whole slew of things:

Activity processing:

⇒ Marketing automation
⇒ CRM
⇒ Lead/demand unit progression
⇒ A platform to ensure and measure customer health
⇒ Work management / content creation

Message delivery:

⇒ Media management
⇒ Social platforms
⇒ Web content

Listening:

⇒ Intent monitoring
⇒ Social listeners
⇒ Predictive tools

Measurement:

⇒ Analytics platforms
⇒ Data warehouses
⇒ BI tools

Then what? You’ll need to invest in integrating these systems into the context of a planning environment—specifically, one that is “goal-based, properly modeled and balanced,” according to Brien.

Importantly, he added, this environment also needs to enable you to properly account for performance: Which campaigns, programs and tactics are impacting your business the most? 

Accordingly, your technology should also be connected to budgets and financials, ensuring you can “accurately account for what you have spent across any necessary segmentation.” Then, you’re “in a position to accurately predict and manage your performance.”

In the end, with all of this information at your fingertips in one place, you can prove your marketing team’s impact on the business through your martech investment.

So, instead of a Super Bowl ad, what equivalent martech investment would you make? (Or, if you did get a slot this year, we look forward to seeing you in the commercials!) Feel free to keep the discussion by contacting us directly.