At $100,000 per second, Super Bowl ads are already expensive. But the success of spots like Doritos and Pepsi Max this year proves that the big guys don't have to pay ad firms to make the ads.
Simply hold a contest and crowdsource it.
Fans devise the creative and fans vote on their favorite. You don't have to pay to make it or to hold focus groups. And what the success of these ads prove is that just because they've been posted online well in advance of the game — for the voting — doesn't diminish the impact of the ad.
Instead of being tied to a single ad firm and seeing just a couple of ideas, the guys from Pepsi MAX and Doritos had to the chance to look at 5,600 submissions. Four of the ads that were eventually found themselves in the top 10 of USA Today's Ad Meter. The Doritos "Pug Attack" spot, in which a dog slams through a glass door to get his chips, tied for the top spot.