Decade Of Super Bowl Spend Tops $2B

More Advertising, More Clutter

Even as Super Bowl ad pricing has increased, the volume of commercial time in the game has also been expanding. The past five Super Bowls have been the most ad-saturated in history, each containing more than 47 minutes of commercial time. This includes paying sponsors, commercial messages from the NFL and promotional announcements from the network for its own shows.

The spike in ad time for the 2013 “Blackout Bowl” was partly due to a decision by CBS to rerun a commercial pod that first aired just after the game was halted by a stadium power outage. CBS was unsure whether its broadcast signal survived the blackout and as a precaution for the affected advertisers it re-aired their commercials later in the game.

Longer Length Commercials

By comparison, the normal proportion of long-form ads on broadcast networks is about 6%.

Top Five Super Bowl Advertisers

During the past five years the top five Super Bowl advertisers have spent $456.6. million on network advertising during the game, accounting for 35% of total advertising revenue.  Anheuser-Busch InBev and Chrysler lead the pack, followed by Pepsico, Hyundai, and Volkswagen.

Local Market TV Sponsors: The Second Battleground

Most interest is focused on the national TV commercials appearing in the Super Bowl. However, affiliate stations in local markets also have an allotment of air time to sell and this inventory offers another way for sponsors to access the event, albeit on a smaller scale.

What categories of advertisers typically appear on the local market broadcasts? There are some variations between larger and smaller population markets. In the 2014 game, restaurants and auto dealer associations were prevalent in markets of all size. In top 25 markets, TV service providers (particularly Comcast and Time Warner Cable), auto manufacturers and insurance marketers were also mainstays.

Outside the top 25 markets, where the price of ad time diminishes, a more eclectic and localized group of advertisers stepped forward including local auto dealerships, medical services and legal services.

Each year there are some noteworthy strategies on display in the Super Bowl from local advertisers. In the 2014 game one of these advertisers was the Church of Scientology. For the second year in a row the religious movement promoted its philosophy in a 30 second unit that cleared in 17 markets, including several containing Scientology’s major centers.

Another was Alex and Ani, the manufacturer and retailer of fine jewelry. Taking advantage of the Super Bowl’s proximity to Valentine’s Day, Alex and Ani ran spots in 19 select markets to provide marketing support for its network of company-owned stores.

First-Time Advertisers

In recent years, there has been a steady influx of first-time advertisers eager for the recognition and brand-building opportunity of the Super Bowl spotlight. In 2014 first-time advertisers accounted for 23 percent of the Super Bowl ad lineup.

A sizable rookie class is expected in 2015. NBC says it has sold time to 15 first-time participants, including Carnival, Loctite, Mophie and Wix.

It’s not clear whether NBC’s count is based on brands or the parent company owners of brands. A first-time brand in the Super Bowl may be from a company that has previously purchased spots.

Small Players on a Big Stage

The daunting price of Super Bowl ad time would seem to be a barrier to small marketers with limited budgets. However, each year the roster of Super Bowl advertisers includes several companies who invest a hefty chunk of their annual budget to buy commercial time. In 2014, six Super Bowl advertisers put more than 10% of their full-year media budgets into the game.

The most leveraged sponsor in the 2014 Super Bowl was Soda Stream International. Its $4.2 million ad buy represented 39% of its full year measured ad expenditures. Sonos was second at 25%.

Top Super Bowl Advertising Categories

Over the past decade, the Super Bowl has attracted a bevy of different automotive, movie studio and dot-com companies, making these the most populous and competitive ad categories.

The Food & Candy category (which excludes all beverage brands) had a stout presence in the Super Bowl in the late 1990s before tailing off, and has now been resurgent. While Doritos snack food has been a perennial sponsor, a growing number of candy, yogurt and specialty food brands have purchased time in recent years.

Traffic Congestion: Auto Advertising

The 2014 Super Bowl was the fourth consecutive year with a glut of automotive ads. A whopping $113 million was spent by eleven different nameplates and the category accounted for over one-fourth of total ad time in the game. Automakers will have a smaller footprint in the 2015 game. Based on corporate announcements thus far, at least two brands (Jaguar and Volkswagen) will not be returning.

The Media Value Of On-Screen Sponsor Exposure

Paid commercials airing during breaks in the game are the most common means for marketers to reach Super Bowl TV viewers. However, there are two additional on-screen exposure opportunities that provide high value for specific sponsors: (1) the venue sponsor; and, (2) the halftime show sponsor.

Kantar Media projects that venue sponsor University of Phoenix will receive about $11.2 million in Sponsorship Media Value from the Super Bowl. This is based on an average 6 minutes, 20 seconds of exposure during the in-game broadcast, primarily from TV camera shots of the stadium. Sponsorship Media Value, a proprietary calculation developed by Kantar Media, takes into account duration, source and prominence of the sponsor’s on-screen exposure

For halftime Super Bowl sponsor Pepsi, the expected exposure time based on historical averages is 4 minutes, 10 seconds which would equate to about $7.3 million of Sponsorship Media Value. Exposure for the halftime sponsor is through on-screen billboards appearing during the first and second quarter of the game, verbal mentions from the announcers and stage signage during the performance itself.

The Social Super Bowl

The Super Bowl generates plenty of second-screen activity during the game and marketers have accelerated their efforts to attract and engage multi-platform consumers. It’s evidenced by the increased number of ads containing a social media element.

According to Kantar Media’s analysis of paid commercials shown during the game, hashtags have overtaken URLs as the most popular call to action mechanism. Last year 60% of paid ads (33 of 55) contained a hashtag as compared to 54% in 2013.

According to Twitter, more than 24.9 million tweets about the football game and halftime show were sent. By comparison, there were about 583,000 tweets relating to ads appearing during the game. This figure does not include the Twitter conversation for a post-game ad aired by Esurance where the company offered a $1.5 million giveaway to a lucky viewer who tweeted a specified hashtag. Esurance has said the contest generated a total of 5.4 million hashtag uses.

How Large Is The Super Bowl Versus Other Sport Franchises?

Major League Baseball’s World Series and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship are two other high profile sporting events that attract significant interest from TV advertisers. But how do these compare to the Super Bowl in terms of ad spend?

The World Series is composed of four to seven games. March Madness peaks with the semi-finals and championship on its final weekend, a total of three games. The Super Bowl, of course, is a single telecast and in recent years it has been pulling away from March Madness and the Fall Classic.