Last year, while he and the rest of the New England Patriots were busy in Minnesota losing Super Bowl LII to the Philadelphia Eagles, NFL superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski was the victim of a home robbery. Ouch.
One year later, Gronk and the Pats are set to make their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance when they square off against the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta this Sunday — and the Boston-based home security startup SimpliSafe thinks the time is right to run its first-ever Super Bowl ad. In fact, the company claims it’s the first Super Bowl ad for the home security category, ever (which appears to be true so long as you don’t count bullet-proof padlocks).
An Editors’ Choice-winner here on CNET, SimpliSafe is a home security system that combines professional monitoring with do-it-yourself installation and setup. The brand has seen significant growth over the past few years, including a 2018 investment valued at $1 billion from the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. It also advertises heavily, with a recent focus on TV ads and podcast sponsorships.
In what will be SimpliSafe’s highest profile ad yet, the 30-second spot is slated to premiere at the end of the Super Bowl’s first quarter. SimpliSafe isn’t sharing any details about what to expect from it, but the company’s Creative Director, Wade Devers, hints that he hopes the ad will upend people’s expectations about the home security space.
‘We’re trying different things,’ he says. ‘We want to tap into a feeling and surprise people.’
‘Currently, only 20 percent of homes in the US have home security,’ SimpliSafe Chief Marketing Officer Melina Engel adds. ‘That’s something we’re on a mission to fix.’
That mission won’t come cheap — in 2019, 30 seconds’ worth of airtime during the Super Bowl is estimated to cost brands between $5.1 and $5.3 million dollars.
