Cost effectiveness pushes mobile advertising instead of TV spots for Super Bowl, says ChaCha

97.5 million viewers watched the Super Bowl last year. With a 30-second TV spot costing around $3 million, mobile search engine ChaCha asks whether TV is the best place to advertise.

ChaCha has released a list of brands that have chosen to advertise with them via SMS instead. Thanks to the flexiblity of SMS, some are advertising nationally and some are zeroing on very specific locations or demographics.

The brands:

H&R Block will target users that inquire with ChaCha about anything tax-related. It will promote its free online tax prep service and direct users to a WAP page at m.hrlbock.com.

Jiffy Lube is specifically targeting ChaCha users in Indiana to promote a free tire rotation with a signature oil change.

The NBA’s Indiana Pacers is promoting tickets to its Tuesday night games (geared at College-aged students)

Tauntr is deploying a national campaign targeted at users that inquire about sports with instructions to use its site to “poke” friends rooting for rival teams

What we think?

There are approx. 3 billion mobile phones worldwide, compared to 1.5 billion television sets. Taking that into account, along with the incredibly hight cost of a Superbowl ad spot, it’s no surprise that brands might wish to explore other options. The presence of H&R Block on that list did surprise me though. If a tax preparation company is hitting consumers via SMS, then word must really be spreading.

I like this move from ChaCha - highly targeted, tight ad-bursts during high profile events could be a great money spinner, and a great way to raise SMS advertisings public profile.