By Brent Ruffner
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

The bright lights of this year’s Super Bowl brought out big stars to promote America’s biggest brands.

For one local company, it brought enough business to crash its website because of high demand.

According to the Associated Press, national advertisers shelled out up to $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the Super Bowl, “so they pulled out all the stops to win over the estimated 100 million people that tune into the game. Big stars, humor and a heavy dose of nostalgia were prevalent throughout the night,” the story said.

With as many as 100 million people watching the big game nationally, even a short spot could yield big results.

Locally, one advertiser packed its own punch within our own Arizona advertising market. Real estate firm 72Sold, a Valley company that touts getting home sellers “typically above comparable sales and appraised value” had three separate local commercials during the Super Bowl.

The commercials — two of which aired at halftime — apparently did the job within the Valley with an offer to pay 72 months of mortgage payments for one homeowner. The ad was only seen in the local market.

The company is a regular advertiser on television, radio, billboards and in newspapers and online, including with Independent Newsmedia. The company also advertises bus wraps on local public transit and on social media.

The flood of people visiting the company website caused the site to crash two times, according to Jennifer Allen, vice president of marketing at 72Sold.

“We had such an overwhelming response that it broke our site twice,” Allen said. “... We had over 7,000 entries in a matter of minutes, but it appears there were over 200,000 that could not get on our website and that is why we extended this offer.”

Effective advertising often includes a call-to-action offer, typically by giving something away at a huge discount or even giving away something for free to entice people to come in the brick-and-mortar location, local advertising leaders said.

In this case, the company was trying to drive traffic to its website to get people to register for its offer. The winner is slated to be announced March 8 during a Channel 12 TV newscast.

Allen said she “can’t disclose” what the price tag of the ad ultimately cost.

Company founder Greg Hague said the offer is a way to thank homeowners in the state for using his real estate platform.

“Our big thank you is to offer every homeowner in Arizona the opportunity to have their house payments made by us for 72 months,” Hague said in a press release.

Entry into the promotion is ongoing through March 1, according to the press release, which added no purchase necessary and no obligation to use 72SOLD now or in the future. To qualify, applicants must be a current Arizona homeowner. The winner will have their mortgage paid (up to $10,000 a month) for 72 months for as long as they live in their current home, the press release said.

“We like to do things unprecedented,” Allen said. “We like to do things no one has ever done before..It’s exciting that we were able to do that,” Allen said. “We definitely made provisions to make sure that (the website crashing) does not happen (again).”

Bob Case, chief creative officer for Phoenix-based advertising and marketing agency Lavidge, said good advertisements include a clear, concise message relevant to the brand the company is presenting.

The question is whether it would be worth the high price commanded by the biggest sporting event of the year, Case said.

“Firstly, would it be a product worthy of the Super Bowl,” he said.

In those high-profile settings, the message in those advertisements should be “what the world wants to hear” to get people to react, Case said.
In the case of 72Sold, the “free” message was a solid one.

In a statement, Hague said he appreciates Arizona homeowners.

“Our goal is to help one Arizona homeowner improve their life, be able to afford education, take a vacation,” Hague said. “As a thank you to Arizona residents for empowering us to become a national brand.”

The offer can be accessed from our main page at 72SOLD.com to enter.

Brent Ruffner
Lead News Reporter | Daily Independent
@AzNewsmedia

BRuffner@iniusa.org

Journalism has fascinated Brent Ruffner since junior high school.

Since 2001, his stories have been published in newspapers from the Albuquerque to the Arizona and he has always had a knack for making sure his facts are right and his words are to the point. 

Growing up, Brent watched as sports reporters covered his beloved Phoenix Suns, a team he followed since Charles Barkley first arrived in Phoenix via trade in 1992. Sports reporting was a dream back then.

But after gaining some writing experience, Brent found a love for news instead of covering different types of sports. In 2008, he moved to New Mexico and covered crime, schools and city beats all while holding elected officials accountable. 

He covered stories that ranged from a DEA drug bust gone bad to an award-winning story on school lunches. 

In Arizona, Brent was a freelance writer who covered everything from the importance of citrus in the state to Esteban owning a store in downtown Prescott. 

Brent is a 2007 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.