The formula behind successful advertising is brutally simple. You need a good cost per view ratio. Put simply, you want to spend as little as possible for every view. So after months, if not years of pitching, seeking funding, development, testing and sleepless nights, your venture is all set to launch. Now you have a budget to blow on marketing, but how do you maximise your return and get millions of views? As is the norm on Bizzvenue, we always think big… and so should you.
So sticking to the think big idea, what are your options? You can spend your budget by advertising on social media, but is that really what you want? Did you honestly ever click on an ad in your Facebook feed? Not to mention actually buying anything. No. Of course not. Sure, blowing big money on social media will get you likes and tweets, that’s important, but it’s not good enough. We need to think bigger.
Ask anyone what pops into their head when you mention the words “big money” and “ad” and most will immediately mention the Super Bowl. The Superbowl if watched by over 115 million people around the globe and that’s undoubtably a massive audience. What about the cost though? Well, last year, on average, a 30 second slot went for about 4 million dollars. Not cheap by any means. However, if you break it down, calculating the CPM—cost-per-mille (thousand viewers). The Super Bowl’s rate is about $35 to reach 1,000 people. Or if you break it down further, it works out at about 35 cents per single view and that’s quite cheap.
Could there be a better way though? A method that offers the advertisers an even better CPM ratio while offering even more excitement and anticipation? Yes, there is. Meet the Gymkhana series. If you’re a petrol head, you know all about this epic series and probably vividly remember even the very first episodes featuring the awesome Crawford Subarus. If so, skip the next paragraph while we quickly explain the idea to the non petrol heads.
So what’s that weird word? What is a Gymkhana? Gymkhana is a type of motorsport. It’s kind of similar to an autocross, the goal of gymkhana is to achieve the fastest time possible. The driver must manoeuvre through a predetermined “track” that is usually set up in a large parking lot and marked with cones. The driver’s goal is to get through the course as quickly as possible with the fewest number of mistakes. Not only does the driver have to hold control over the car, but the gymkhana requires strong mental concentration and memorization of the course. It’s cheap and accessible motorsport that really tests the drivers. Powerful expensive cars can easily be beaten by a well driven hot hatch.
What does all this have to do with marketing and CPM rates? Simple, Ken Block and DC Shoes took this concept and made it viral. Ken Block is a pro rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division and is also a co founder at DC Shoes. So he decided to utilise his su-bloody-perb driving skills to get the brand on the map.
Today marks the launch of Gymkhana 7, the pervious six episodes have accumulated well over 200 million views (combined). While Gymkhana 5 alone has brought in over 68 million views! It is claimed that Gymkhana 5 cost less than 1 million dollars to produce. If that’s true, the CPM rate works out at a mind blowing $14 to reach 1000 people. Or 14 cents per view (compared to 35 cent per view on the Super Bowl). That’s ridiculously good value. Of course we must remember, that since the Gymkhana videos are posted on youtube, they are about 10 minutes long compared to 30 second Super Bowl ads. For comparisons sake, a 10 minute ad on the Super Bowl would cost you 80 million dollars. So basically the Gymkhana series has managed to cut the CPM by more that half while allowing close to 10 minutes of content. This is genius work. It really is.
This time round Ken will tearing about Los Angeles in a menacing fully custom 845 hp all wheel drive mustang fittingly called the HOONICORN. It’s been rumoured that this latest instalment is going to be the best ever and it may be on able to crack 100 million views in the coming weeks. Gymkhana 7 has just gone live. The wait is over. Here it is!
