"All You Need is Ecuador": EC's $3-Million Superbowl-Today Show Ad Buy

Many watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.  Sounds like I will have to watch on the NY channel to catch the ad.  Looking for Baby Boomers to retire, I am guessing the music will be by the Beatles, and if you don't know which song you are disqualified.

cccmedia wrote:

Ecuador will run a 30-second TV commercial in major U.S. markets for the massive Super Bowl TV audience, promoting the travel campaign "All You Need Is Ecuador."

The EC tourism minister told a Monday news conference* (1-19-15) that the spot showing the Land of the Sun as a leading tourism destination will run during halftime in the New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. television markets (on NBC stations).

The cost of the ad buy, which includes "complementary" spots on The Today Show, is $2.99 million.  The tourism ministry's ad budget for the year is $90-million.

17 percent of Ecuador arrivals -- 260,000 visitors -- came from the U.S. last year, the news conference was told.  The Super Bowl spot means "we dare to dream big," said the minister.

*Details of the news conference were reported by Andes news service (andes.info.ec) in a story datelined Quito, which was brought to Expat.com Ecuador's attention by poster yulrun in the "Las Olas Ecuador development" thread.

Football's New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday, February 1st, in metro Phoenix.  It is North America's biggest sporting event of the year and historically among the most-watched television programs in any year.

This is probably the ideal time, and venue to gain more exposure to the U.S. markets. Huge viewing audience, and add to that an economy that's starting to get stronger. Imagine more people with a bit of expendable income they didn't have the past few years. Ecuador should make that investment money back several fold. Pretty smart move (in my opinion).

Based on information published in today's Los Angeles Times, the EC Superbowl ad buy will reach a larger audience than was originally reported, including the big LA television market.

The Times report appears in an article topped by a photo showing two marine iguanas warming each other on Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.

The lead sentence is:

"During Super Bowl halftime Feb. 1, you can expect to see high-priced commercials for beer, fast food, cars, soft drinks and a small South American banana exporter."

Also, these facts and factoids (source: LA Times):

The ad will appear in 13 major U.S. markets, LA and Miami among them. The EC government paid $3.8 million for the ad buy, including "eight other commercials" on The Today Show leading up to the Superbowl.

Ecuador will be the first foreign country to buy a 30-second ad during the Superbowl to encourage tourism there.

The "All You Need Is Ecuador" commercial will feature the Beatles' classic song "All You Need Is Love."

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

The "All You Need Is Ecuador" commercial will feature the Beatles' classic song "All You Need Is Love."

Of course it will

I hope it will show up on YouTube (most Super Bowl ads do). Although I'm in the market where the game will be played, they're not running the ad here.

This isn't the Super Bowl ad, but I was looking for it on Youtube (sometimes the advertisers post them in advance), and I came across this, which may give some idea of what the ad will look like. This is 3:23, so obviously, it would have to be edited way down, but it uses the Beatles' song as a soundtrack, which apparently the SB will, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCwLjXH0f-Y

BobH wrote:

This is 3:23, so obviously, it would have to be edited way down, but it uses the Beatles' song as a soundtrack, which apparently the SB will, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCwLjXH0f-Y

Well done, Bob, locating and sharing this preview.

As a former video and TV commercials producer -- and given that they're spending millions on the ad buy -- I would prefer to use the Beatles' original vocals, instead of the Gringo announcer's voice-over, for most of the video. 

And then bring in the announcer at the end for the "All you need is Ecuador" punchline.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

As a former video and TV commercials producer -- and given that they're spending millions on the ad buy -- I would prefer to use the Beatles' original vocals, instead of the Gringo announcer's voice-over, for most of the video. 

And then bring in the announcer at the end for the "All you need is Ecuador" punchline.
cccmedia in Quito

Gotta agree with the experienced expert on this one.  How much more does it cost to use the original Beatles?  I also wonder if it is going to be a Galapagos only ad rather than Ecuador, it will take a lot of cutting to make it 30 seconds and still get the flavor.  This will make the Super Bowl even more fun, second guessing the players, the coaches and the commercials.

The L.A. Times, since publishing the report above, has opened its website for reader comments about the EC Superbowl ad buy.

The first poster, MSOLdn, had this take:

"As a major supplier of oil to the western U.S., (Ecuador) must take steps to counter the negative impact of the current low price on economic development (through) additional revenues from tourism.  This new ad campaign is a very worthwhile idea."

Have a read at that https://www.yahoo.com/travel/ecuador-su … ef=Default

This is how you leverage a Super Bowl ad.  We haven't seen it yet, but there's already people talking about it!

A statistic in the Yahoo! story reachable by yulrun's link says that one in four tourists from the U.S.A. visits Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands.

If you click on the "read more" option in this Yahoo! report, you can access a 30-second spot from the "All You Need Is Ecuador" TV ad campaign, although it's not necessarily the same one that will be shown during halftime of the Superbowl.  In this spot, they DO go with the "All You Need Is Love" vocals for most of the commercial, before bringing in the Gringo announcer's voice-over at the very end.

There's also a link in the Yahoo! story to a report hitting the highlights of the recent InterNations survey that showed Ecuador as the number-one destination liked by Expats.  (Luxembourg was second.)  According to one factoid, fewer than four in ten Expats in EC plan to stay here for the long run.

cccmedia in Quito

A headline-writer at fusion.net came up with this take:

                    Ecuador Goes For "Hail Mary"
                    With $3-million Superbowl Ad

For non-sports fans, a "hail Mary" is a long pass with just a prayer of a chance.

In the body of the story:

"Ecuador's ad will be aired only in major cities including Miami, San Francisco and New York, where tourism officials hope to get more high-end travelers.

"So if you're watching the big game in one of those markets, make sure you're not in the bathroom when the ad comes on at halftime -- or it'll be money down the toilet for Ecuador."

Apparently, this is the ad:
http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/35053.html

Hi ccmedia, There will be super bowl viewing going on at: G-Spot today in La Mariscal: https://www.facebook.com/MexiCaliQuito?ref=br_tf
...come early if you want a good seat:)

Official ad: http://youtu.be/toZaCpIzDqg

Well done I think!

Did you miss the much-awaited 2015 Superbowl commercials because you were in, say, Ecuador....

Some of these on video are grouped as "Best Superbowl Commercials" and "Worst Superbowl Commercials" at:

     superbowl-commercials.org

In my group, the Ecuador commercial raised little interest among watchers, with some questions along the lines of "why would they advertise during the Super Bowl".  It fell solidly in the middle of the pack - not great, not awful - just overall an ordinary commercial already forgotten by 99% of viewers.

SawMan wrote:

In my group, the Ecuador commercial raised little interest among watchers, with some questions along the lines of "why would they advertise during the Super Bowl".  It fell solidly in the middle of the pack - not great, not awful - just overall an ordinary commercial already forgotten by 99% of viewers.

I was more impressed with the cruise line that informed me that my blood and the ocean have the same salt content.

The cleverest concept, in my opinion, was Mexico's avocado ad based on the idea of the world's first draft. The one that went over biggest at the party I attended was the Chevy ad with the screen going temporarily blank.

'All you need is Ecuador' didn't run in this market, of course, but I agree that it was very forgettable. I wanted to like it, but I can't see it making any impression in this setting.

BobH wrote:

'All you need is Ecuador' didn't run in this market (Phoenix), of course, but I agree that it was very forgettable.

Yes, the visuals were uninspired, Bob...
        but Ecuador's timing was terrific.

Nfl.com reports that the U.S. audience for the Big Game was the largest ever for a television program in the United States...114.4 million viewers.

cccmedia in Quito



                                                                    .

cccmedia wrote:

Yes, the visuals were uninspired, Bob...
        but Ecuador's timing was terrific.

From the Give-Credit-Where-Due Department:

The choice of music worked!

I imagine I'm not the only viewer of the EC tourism commercial who's been humming the Beatles' classic "Love" song the last few days.

Whoever came up with that choice gets the 

cccmedia in Quito

I have not spoken to a person yet who even remembers seeing the commercial, was part of halftime here.  The only person on Facebook I know saw it is from Ecuador, knew it was running, told me about it on Saturday.

cccmedia wrote:

BobH wrote:

'All you need is Ecuador' didn't run in this market (Phoenix), of course, but I agree that it was very forgettable.

Yes, the visuals were uninspired, Bob...
        but Ecuador's timing was terrific.

Nfl.com reports that the U.S. audience for the Big Game was the largest ever for a television program in the United States...114.4 million viewers.

cccmedia in Quito



                                                                    .

So they spent 3 million out of a 90 million budget for tourism. That's what 3.5% roughly of the overall budget? Even if it was a bust, which am not saying it was, the risk reward ratio was worth it. As ccc stated, was the largest audience ever. Granted the ad wasn't broadcast in every U.S. market. Still think it was worth it for Ecuador to take the chance.

The smartest thing Ecuador could do to improve tourism is reduce the cost of flying here... reduce airport fees and taxes, maybe subsidize flight like Vegas used to. Cut the cost of flying here to the point where it's compedative with Columbia. Most folks will drop at least $1000 a week so it makes sense to subsidize flights from major US and EU cities.

jessekimmerling wrote:

The smartest thing Ecuador could do to improve tourism is reduce the cost of flying here... reduce airport fees and taxes, maybe subsidize flight like Vegas used to. Cut the cost of flying here to the point where it's compedative with Columbia. Most folks will drop at least $1000 a week so it makes sense to subsidize flights from major US and EU cities.

I think you need to increase the demand first and getting exposure is key to achieve that.  Before thinking of traveling to Ecuador, you need to know it exists!

With the ad, they are targeting high-end travelers.  Ecuador is competing against Bhutan or Peru, not against Dominican Republic. I don't think people are trying to save $200 here.

I don't feel the country could handle a lot more travelers and offer them a great experience. The offer is still limited and slowly improving.  We will only know in 3-5 years if that bet was worth it.

Ministry of Tourism published the impact of the Super Bowl ad campaign.  On their website, I was only able to find a version in Spanish, but there's a translated one on the Las Olas website:

http://lasolasecuador.com/all-you-need- … lion-hits/

Pretty impressive numbers!  The numbers around the usage of the hashtag #AllYouNeedIsEcuador really gives you the real engagement and getting 700k visits on your website from the US is pretty impressive.

The only sad thing is they were using the URL http://allyouneedisecuador.travel  This is really not convenient...

If you type http://allyouneedisecuador.com you end up on a parked website.  When you plan a $4M, you should not hesitate and buy that domain.  I doubt the guy was expecting more than a few thousands for that.  I'm sure a lot of traffic was lost there and I don't know why the owner didn't put some affiliate travel links... He sure lost a nice opportunity!

Good post, good analysis, Yulrun.

On the allyouneedisecuador.travel site, you can tour Ecuador from your computer by doing the following:

Select "What To Do" and then select "City Tours."  Navigate from there to see beautiful photography and 'experience' what is available around the Land of the Sun.

Don't forget to select the language option when you 'arrive.'

cccmedia in Quito

I spoke to someone who actually saw the ad during the Super Bowl and remembered it, said he would consider visiting Ecuador when his youngest completes grad school.  She is currently in 6th grade, so that means the some of the effects of the ad won't be felt for a dozen years or more.

mugtech wrote:

I spoke to someone who actually saw the ad during the Super Bowl and remembered it, said he would consider visiting Ecuador when his youngest completes grad school.  She is currently in 6th grade, so that means the some of the effects of the ad won't be felt for a dozen years or more.

That's good news. Like Yulrun has mentioned, and mugtech has just mentioned, Ecuador won't be an overnight phenomenon. At least not to the extent people are going to come in droves all of a sudden because of a SuperBowl commercial. It was good exposure. Actually would make sense to keep buying ad space for future SuperBowls. Ecuador has become the hot commodity over the last several years. Might as well strike while the iron is hot. Hell, even that youtube clip nards posted on Cuenca forum will probably wind up being great exposure for the country.

j600rr wrote:

mugtech wrote:

I spoke to someone who actually saw the ad during the Super Bowl and remembered it, said he would consider visiting Ecuador when his youngest completes grad school.  She is currently in 6th grade, so that means the some of the effects of the ad won't be felt for a dozen years or more.

That's good news. Like Yulrun has mentioned, and mugtech has just mentioned, Ecuador won't be an overnight phenomenon. At least not to the extent people are going to come in droves all of a sudden because of a SuperBowl commercial. It was good exposure. Actually would make sense to keep buying ad space for future SuperBowls. Ecuador has become the hot commodity over the last several years. Might as well strike while the iron is hot. Hell, even that youtube clip nards posted on Cuenca forum will probably wind up being great exposure for the country.

You're right j600rr, being on people's bucket list, that's the goal. The "All you is need is Ecuador" is a very well executed campaign!  It's a great eye-opener.