• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 3, 2020

Whether you like its varieties of graham/marshmallow treats or not, you have to give the marketing folks at Moon Pie and agency of record Tombras credit. They know how to ride the coattails of a big event they can't afford — the Super Bowl being a case in point.

It’s too bad the budget wasn’t there because the spot they produced — with a clever commercial within a commercial twist — is every bit as entertaining as anything I saw during the Big Game.

It did air nationally, however, on GSTV, the network of OOH video screens that adorn gas pumps at service stations across the U.S.

This year’s effort is part of a three-year SB coattail campaign dubbed #TheBigThing. Two years ago, the company posted scripts for nine ads it would have run if it had the budget. Last year, three ads were produced and shared on social. 

In both years, the response from fans was pretty buzzy.

Running a spot on GSTV on Game Day is pretty smart, when you think of the millions of people across the country that make last-minute runs to gas-station convenience stores on their way to parties or to stock up for their own Game Day festivities.

This year’s social component included the release of the GSTV ad on Twitter during the second quarter of the game. At deadline, it had more than 141,000 views, ahead of almost a dozen ads that were in the game, including Little Caesars, Verizon, Tide and Toyota, according to figures reported by USA Today Admeter.

Clever, buzzy, efficient and all for a heck of a lot less than the reported $5.6 million that marketers plunked down for a spot in the game.