It's Super Bowl weekend! I don't know about you guys, but for me that mostly means an excuse to sit in front of the TV and eat tons of food in a social setting. For many people, though, the next best thing after the game itself is the hype surrounding the ads chosen to air during the game. You'd think that with millions upon millions of viewers, these ads would be some of the most effective marketing expenses of the year for the companies that pay to play. You might think that, but you would be wrong.

Some notable Super Bowl ads from the last year. Image via Huffington Post. 

The research firm Communicus discovered that about 80% of Super Bowl ads don't affect the sales at all of the companies who purchased them. (Communicus surveyed 1,000 viewers before and after the 2012 and 2013 games and looked at the companies' earning to get this statistic.) Maybe it's because companies that can afford the 4 million dollar price tag of one of the ads are generally already pretty well known, and maybe it's because they've been so bizarre in the last few years that you hardly know what the advertisement is for. In any case, Superbowl ads don't seem like a good investment.

Business signs, on the other hand, have been proven to increase sales on average by 4.75%. Also, 50% of your customers will find your business because of your identification sign, and the majority of people surveyed said they would not enter a business that had no sign outside their storefront. So, not only are signs waaaaaay more effective than Super Bowl ads, but your business will actually decrease without them! Thankfully, the price tag is a lot smaller for signage than the 4 million bucks it takes to air a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl. 

(These numbers are based on industry standards for the average cost of these products and are approximations, not exact calculations.)

Things you can do with 4 million dollars that would be way more effective than airing a Super Bowl ad:

• You can get a vehicle wrapped one-thousand, four hundred and twenty-nine times. Or, you can get one-thousand, four hundred and twenty-nine individual vehicles wrapped. Can you imagine the army of fleet vehicles that could buy for your company? Vehicle wraps are actually one of the most cost-efficient types of advertising signage costing mere cents on the dollar per every thousand impressions. Studies have also shown that consumers most easily recall the information on vehicle wraps before other types of signage.
• You can have sixteen-hundred wall murals installed. I'm trying to imagine the palatial mansion that even has that many walls to wrap (maybe they want new murals at Versaille?). Wall murals are a great way to add artistry and design to your home, or create a large branding impact at your office. Check out our vinyl graphics board on Pinterest to see some awesome examples of how people are using wall murals. 
• Need six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six acrylic dimensional signs? That would be crazy. (Or would it be crazy awesome?) But that's how many you can get for the price of a Super Bowl ad! Dimensional signs—including lettering—are a classic way to identify your business, and identification signs are absolutely necessary for your business' growth and success.
• Twenty-two thousand, four hundred and seventy-one banners. That's enough banners to let approximately every fourth person actually attending the Super Bowl at the Metlife stadium take a commemorative banner home, or to shoot out of t-shirt cannons into every section of the stadium. Now that would be some excellent guerrilla marketing!

For the price of a Super Bowl ad, a company could give away a banner to one in four people attending the Super Bowl. We would recommend shooting these banners out of t-shirt cannons because, in the words of Parks and Recreation character Ben Wyatt, "at the end of the day, all anyone really wants is free [stuff] shot at them from a cannon."

• Last (but not least) you can get twenty-three thousand, five hundred and twenty-nine aluminum composite (ACP) signs. Fortunately, all it takes is one large, quality ACP sign to effectively identify and advertise your business. But we'll make you 23,529 if you really want us to :)