Dogfish Head to air big game ad in a super-small way

Bringing its off-centered ethos to the football field, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery sprints into next month’s big game with one of the year’s smallest ad buys.

With some advertisers reportedly spending up to $7 million for a 30-second commercial during the big game this year, Dogfish Head is spending 1,000 times less.

The brewery’s 30-second spot will cost just $7,000 to air. It will appear exclusively in the Delmarva area, a subset of the Salisbury Designated Market Area which is ranked 137 out of 210, and is the region Dogfish Head calls home.

Dogfish Head’s spot – its first big game commercial – pokes a little fun at all the marketing hoopla, and instead of highlighting professional football, it focuses on electric football. Featuring the brewery’s founder and brewer Sam Calagione, the commercial pays homage to his use of Tudor Games’ iconic Electric Football game to invent the brewing method of continual hopping, from which the brewery’s beloved beers 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute Imperial IPA and 120 Minute IPA were born.

By rigging an Electric Football game over a brew kettle, Calagione was able to cascade hops into his beers at a consistent rate to create a lineup of IPAs that are outrageously hoppy without being crushingly bitter. To honor this invention’s impact on the craft brewing community, Dogfish Head’s original continual hopping mechanism now sits in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum.

“Throughout our 27+ years in business, our only game plan has been venturing off the beaten path, and this commercial as well as our partnership with Tudor are perfect examples of that overarching passion for off-centered exploration,” said Calagione. “From one of the smallest craft breweries in America to one of the smallest big game commercial spends, we felt it only fitting to air our spot featuring a tiny football game exclusively in our slight but mighty backyard, coastal Delaware. At Dogfish, we take what we do seriously. Ourselves? Not so much.”

Continuing its longtime relationship with Tudor Games, Dogfish Head recently sponsored the Electric Football World Championships Feb. 4-5, the only weekend of the professional football season without any live games. 

To complement the brewery’s big game spot and sponsorship of the Electric Football World Championships, Dogfish Head will launch a custom beer-themed edition of Tudor Games’ Electric Football. Later this month, boards will be available at dogfish.com/shop for $110 each. Supplies are limited.

To learn about Tudor Games, check out tudorgames.com.