10/17/2018
How to Troll Your Foes: A Case Study of the TCU “Little Sisters of the Poor” vs. The Ohio State
A few weeks back there was a college football game between TCU and Ohio State. Leading up to the game, one of the fun stories was the revelation of the masterminds behind billboards that ran in Ohio back in 2011 after TCU won the Rose Bowl over Wisconsin. You see, previously the Ohio State president had quipped that an undefeated TCU didn’t deserve to play for the National Championship; they were undefeated only because they had played a soft schedule comprised of various incarnations of the “Little Sisters of the poor.” Undefeated TCU, then not part of a major conference, was in fact left out of the National Championship game but went on to beat Wisconsin, of Ohio State’s Big 10 conference, to remain undefeated on the season. After that Rose Bowl victory, some TCU alums got the idea to troll Ohio State for their president’s quip a few weeks earlier. Read the full story here: http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/24660785/tcu-alums-claim-2011-ohio-state-billboard-prank.
The TCU alums spent $5,000 to run a spot on 20 digital billboards in the Columbus, OH area congratulating their TCU team for the Rose Bowl victory, signed “Little Sisters of the Poor.” The spots ran once per minute for approximately one day which means the billboard was displayed for a total of 230,400 seconds; or 3,840 minutes; or 64 hours in that one day. That works out to be $78 per display hour. Assuming each spot averages 250,000 impressions per week, they would have gotten 714,000 impressions with 20 spots for one day. That’s $7.00 per 1,000 impressions (CPM).
If the TCU alums had used that same $5,000 on truck-side billboards they would’ve gotten so much more trolling for the buck!!! By purchasing a Big Rig Billboard on one truck for five months, they not only would’ve saved a few hundred dollars but they would’ve maximized their possible jab at Buckeye Nation!!! Instead of $78, they would have had a cost of $7.20 per displayed hour and they would have had 3,850,000 impressions for a CPM of just $1.23.
If maximizing presence was more up their alley, they could have simply trolled the Buckeyes for one month, putting three Big Rig Billboards in motion with their “Little Sisters of the Poor” jab and still come in a few hundred dollars below their $5,000 budget. With three trucks for one month their cost per displayed hour would be $11.74 gaining just over 2,100,000 impressions for a CPM of $2.01.
TCU alums had fun and even picked up some media coverage, but they could’ve had so much more fun by utilizing truck-side advertising!! So, whether you want to troll your sports rival, or drive revenues, you’ll find that you’ll get max impressions in any given market with Big Rig Billboards. Truck-side advertising is the most effective stand-alone or supplemental out-of-home marketing option with a CPM below $1.50.
After a Rose Bowl victory following the 2010 season, these fans put up 20 billboards around Columbus after then-OSU president E. Gordon Gee said TCU was only undefeated because they played the "Little Sisters of the Poor."
