Advertising during the Super Bowl is a must for marketers of motor vehicles, soft drinks, and motion pictures. But for mailing list providers, not so much. Nonetheless, Omaha-based Sales Genie took the estimated $2.6 million risk on a 30-second Super Bowl spot and an undisclosed sponsorship deal to be a presenting sponsor of a half-hour segment of the pregame show. According to Ann Arbor, MI-based ROI evaluation services company Joyce Julius and Associates, the pregame exposure alone was valued at $1,216,665.

CHIEF MARKETER's Tim Parry spoke with Vin Gupta, chairman/CEO of Sales Genie's parent company, infoUSA, about whether the risk was worth the reward.

CHIEF MARKETER: Traditionally advertisers with a product or a service for consumers are the ones that choose to advertise during the Super Bowl. What gave you the idea to get your Sales Genie brand out there?

Vin Gupta: There are 300 million people in the U.S., and people who are over 12 that have an affinity to buy things make up over 210 million. In our case, we see a potential market to be about 30 million prospects and customers. So we are not strictly consumer, we are not strictly business, we fall somewhere in the middle. When you're trying to reach 30 million potential buyers, the Super Bowl makes good sense.

CM: Did the success of domain-name seller and Website host GoDaddy.com, which has advertised during the Super Bowl for the past few years, influence your decision?

Gupta: Absolutely. I think in the past we all saw Super Bowl advertising as something for consumers, like beer and cars. But then when you see FedEx-Kinko's, or you see GoDaddy.com, they are not exactly selling to every person. But they have a big enough market. So that definitely got me thinking that we should look into that...