World’s Last Blockbuster in Bend still seeing surge in sales, visitors sparked by online Super Bowl ad
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The World's Last Blockbuster, located in Bend, recently did an online-only ad during the Super Bowl, exclusively through social media. And the store has seen a new rush of attention -- and surge in sales -- ever since.
The ad was premiered through Instagram Live during the big game, and was viewed over 25,000 times during its livestream. Since then, the ad has been seen over 300,000 times on social media. The last remaining store has seen a big uptick in customers stopping in for rentals, merchandise and snacks.
The commercial features a cockroach wandering the apocalyptic streets of Bend, when the roach notices the last Blockbuster and decides to go towards it. The ad ends with the roach, welcomed by a worker as "Steve," walking into Blockbuster and taking a right to go explore some of its newest titles.
Store-floor manager Dan Montgomery told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday, "You don't have to be this billion dollar conglomerate to take advantage of the eyes that are online and TV during the Super Bowl."
The cost of a 30-second commercial during this year's Super Bowl was $7 million, according to Statista. Blockbuster aired its ad free on Instagram. There were production costs for Blockbuster, since they decided to collaborate with a company they have worked with in the past called "Atlantic New York" to make the spot.
Store General Manager Sandi Harding said the company flew to Central Oregon to film scenes for its ad. "They actually flew out here -- it was great, and hopefully people who watched it who are local are going to notice a few places. We filmed everything here in town and just CGI'd it."
The staff didn't want to say what they paid for the commercial, but they assure us the investment paid off.
Montgomery said, "February was double what we'd normally see coming in and out of the store. Online stuff slows down in the spring and summer, and the store is usually swamped, so it usually swaps. In the winter, we do way more online and vice versa. So it's nice to have business online during the winter and in the store."
The interest in merchandise reaches far beyond Central Oregon, with the Super Bowl ad bringing an influx of online shoppers worldwide.
Harding said, "Whatever you see in the store we also feature online. So, we sell a lot of hats, T-shirts and sweatpants to people all over the country -- all over the world, for that matter. We send things overseas a lot, too."
Online orders Tuesday morning were just one example of the recent business boom. Some mornings, the store will get 90 online orders to fill. Last year in February, the busiest days for online orders they'd have would be 20 orders. Movie rentals for locals are also up about 200 percent, especially for new releases.
Harding said, "You know, our numbers every day have doubled, online orders have doubled, so everything has definitely been an uptick."
