Meta introduced Ads Super Burst, a new ad format that lets brands reserve between 3 and 24 hours of Facebook and Instagram inventory around a product launch or a big event, with the option to block competitors in the same category from advertising during the same window. For example, an advertiser may purchase an Ads Super Burst to promote a professional sports game or awards show to hype up the event, or to dominate the feed during the first few hours of a new product launch.
Meta wrote in its announcement:
“The brands people remember are often the ones that show up inside the most memorable moments: the game everyone is discussing, the show everyone is watching, and the trend that goes from niche to everywhere in a weekend… Most brands have a few moments a year that matter more than the rest.”
Meta says the median brand in its tests reached 34M people per window, or about 14% of U.S. adults online in a day, which is pretty impressive. In comparison, Super Bowl commercials are estimated to reach upwards of 120M viewers, so an Ads Super Burst from Meta gets you more than a quarter of the way there.
Brands book the slots through Meta’s Reach Planner, which quotes estimated reach and price in advance, and the format is opening to all advertisers in phases this month. Meta is also testing a second reserved placement in the U.S. called First Impression Ads, which gives one brand the first ad slot in the feed for a whole day.
In April, I wrote on LinkedIn:
“There’s an advertising trend happening in front of our eyes right now… Brands don’t want to be AN advertiser, they want to be THE advertiser. They want to take over a user’s entire session, not appear alongside other forgettable one-off ads as the user scrolls. It’s the only way to filter through the advertising noise that the platforms themselves created.”
This was made evident by the launch of Snapchat’s Total Snap Takeovers, TikTok’s Logo Takeovers, Prime Time sequential ads, and TopReach, and Spotify’s Branded Playlist Takeovers. It was obvious that Meta would soon offer a similar format, not just because they’re notorious for blatantly copying the most popular features from all their competitors, but also because exclusive attention is where advertising is headed.
