Ever since Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets in 2020, he and the organization have been thinking “outside the box” in the operation of the team.
The latest step in that strategy is happening this Sunday night as the Mets will take out a commercial during the Super Bowl. It’s a local ad, so unless you live in the tri-state area, you will not see it during the game. But the Mets posted their ad on YouTube so you can take a look.
It’s an amusing ad featuring Mets players and Mr. Met on the phone selling tickets.
The Athletic went into detail as to why the Mets would take out a Super Bowl ad and how much this would cost. Since it’s a local ad, it’s not going to cost $7 million per 30 seconds like the national ads are going to cost. At the same time, this is New York City, so local ads in the tri-state region will probably be one of the highest in the country. It’s reported that ads in NYC are going for $276,000 for 30 seconds, but adding production costs and the package of ads the team purchased post-Super Bowl, the total value was reportedly around $1.5 million.
While it’s an ad for selling tickets, it’s also an ad that is trying to enhance the Mets brand. For decades, the Yankees have been a global brand, where many people wear Yankees hats, and they aren’t even baseball fans. Who knows if the Mets reach that level, but having a Super Bowl ad in the NYC market is a calculated risk to get there.
[UPDATE: A previous version had listed $1.5 million as the total cost of the package of ads when that was actually the total value of the package.]
