WASHINGTON — In the midst of ads for beer, fast food chains and sport utility vehicles that air on Super Bowl Sunday, it is unusual to see an ad for a government contractor.
But for the second straight year, Falls Church-based CSRA will make a Super Bowl appearance.
The government IT contractor’s 30-second ad will air regionally in six markets across the U.S., including D.C., Tampa, Oklahoma City, Montgomery, Alabama and San Diego.
CSRA wouldn’t say what it is paying for the 30-second regional ads, but a 30-second Super Bowl spot in the D.C. market alone can run around $150,000.
The ad is a montage of kids posing kid-like cybersecurity questions and ends with the tag: “CSRA. Think Next. Now.”
The spot, called “Curiosity,” was created and produced by local talent. D.C.-based RepEquity, the creative agency and reputation management firm is headed by former White House staffer and entrepreneur Tripp Donnelly.
It will air just before halftime.
Why would a government IT contractor invest in putting its message on the air during the Super Bowl?
“We’re not your conventional government contractor,” said CSRA chief marketing officer Jay Hauck. “We believe in taking a creative approach across all of our solutions, and this ad — and the ability to tell our story to half of the households in the Washington area that watch the Super Bowl — is a bold and creative exclamation mark on everything we do.”
It also picked the markets in which its spot will air with intention.
“D.C. is an obvious choice as it’s the epicenter of the government, and each remaining location is vital to our business,” Hauck said.
“Alabama and Oklahoma, for example, are where we built the infrastructure for milCloud 2.0, which is about to launch and will provide next generation cloud computing for the DoD.”
CSRA, created by the 2015 merger of SRA International and Computer Sciences Corp’s government services business, has 19,000 employees and had $5 billion in 2017 revenue.
Watch its “Curiosity” Super Bowl ad here.
