Meta ran up to 60 seconds of ads in the recent Super Bowl game livestream, which may be the highest priced VR-related ads in history. The Super Bowl's 30-second playtime reportedly costs as much as $6.5 million, and Meta may have spent about $13 million on a single play of a 60-second ad during the Super Bowl. If they booked the full version, it could cost nearly $23 million.
As a super popular sports event, Meta's advertising at the Super Bowl can both promote VR to a national audience and strengthen its rebranding of Oculus Quest 2 to Meta Quest 2. Facebook, which once had unlimited glory in the social field, is currently in trouble, with net profits and daily active declines. Since entering 2022, Meta's stock price has held a cumulative decline of 34.73%.
Meta's ad" for Old friends. New Fun, a co-production with advertising agency Anomaly LA, featured a 60-second version of the Super Bowl that was cut from a 1 minute and 46 second ad that Meta shared a few days before the game, and is set against the backdrop of The Song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" sung by Simple Minds in 1985.
The ad story revolves around an anthropomorphic doll animal band that once played at Questy's restaurant, subtly introducing Horizon Worlds, Meta's social VR platform. While this may not be a service to those already familiar with VR and Horizon Worlds, the plot of the ad is that after the breakup, animatronic bands are able to reunite in a virtual version of questy restaurant, which was built in Horizon World.
More than just advertising, Meta really built a virtual version of Questy in Horizon World that users can freely access. This version of Questy differs from the restaurant in the ad, but it's also a neat little space full of mini-games where users can wear costumes and become animated characters in the ads.