Reddit couldn't afford a normal-length Super Bowl 55 commercial. Those were going for an average of $5.5 million.
But the social media company chose it wanted to have a piece of the big-game pie, anyway. Reddit ran a five-second spot directly after The Weeknd performed on the halftime show. You might have missed it entirely. Even if you noticed, there were a lot of words on the screen to read in five seconds.
Here's what the Reddit advertisement said:
Wow, this actually worked.
If you're reading this, it means our bet paid off.
Big game spots are expensive, so we couldn't buy a full one. But we were inspired and decided to spend our entire marketing budget on 5 seconds of airtime. One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish just about anything when they come together around a common idea.
Who knows, maybe you'll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on "tendies." Maybe you'll help r/SuperbOwl teach the world about the majesty of owls. Maybe you'll even pause this 5-second ad.
Powerful things happen when people rally around something they really care about. And there's a place for that. It's called Reddit.
The ad was just a simple panel on the screen that displayed those words.
Reddit 🤝 r/wallstreetbets
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 8, 2021
In a five-second Super Bowl ad, Reddit offered a show of support for its community of users. pic.twitter.com/lLwAKIHIjO
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Reddit was almost certainly referring to the Reddit group called r/wallstreetbets, which made a big impact on the stock market in the last few weeks. That community of mostly personal investors provided exponential growth to both the GameStop and AMC stocks, among others.
If you didn't see the five-second commercial live, at least you've seen it now. Reddit has definitely been catching many folks' attentions.