Behold, 404 Media’s Super Bowl ad. Yes, we bought a Super Bowl ad. No, we did not spend $8 million.
Until now, 404 Media has never done any paid advertising, but we figured why not get in on the country’s biggest ad extravaganza with a message about our journalist-owned, human-focused media company. There are tons of ads for AI and big tech this year, so how about some counter programming?
On a whim last week, we began looking into purchasing a Super Bowl ad for as little money as possible, by finding a local station willing to air our ad. We knew this was possible because in 2015, The Verge bought a Super Bowl ad that aired only in Helena, Montana, for a cost of $700. Inspired by them, we did the same this year.
After googling “smallest TV markets in the United States,” we came across KYOU, which serves the city of Ottumwa, Iowa: population ~25,000. There were other options, but we thought we would try Ottumwa and see if anyone responded or if this seemed like a fool’s errand. We emailed KYOU to see if we could buy a Super Bowl ad, and we got an immediate answer: There was one slot left, and it would cost $2,550. They also had a slot immediately after the game for $1,250, one during the Olympics following the game for $500, or pregame slots for $500. It felt important to have the ad actually run during the game, so we paid the $2,550 in-game slot.
