An oral history of Apple’s groundbreaking 1984 spot, which helped to establish the Super Bowl as TV’s biggest commercial showcase.
In a time of fragmentation, advertising during the game’s broadcast is still a reliable way to boost company revenue and familiarize viewers with a brand. Pictured: Hellmann’s Mayonnaise is one of the companies that will be advertising during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
With ratings ebbing and business models crumbling, last year’s edition registered the largest audience of any TV event in history, with 115.1 million viewers (albeit with the caveat of revised Nielsen methodology). This year’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Taylor Swift-enhanced Kansas City Chiefs could bring somehow make the big game even bigger.
It is the third time the trio will call the big game together. The telecast will be produced by Jim Rikhoff and directed by Mike Arnold.
As the NFL prepares for its third straight Sunday in London, the league already has discussed the idea of one day playing a Super Bowl in the British capital, according to commissioner Roger Goodell. A Super Bowl in London is not happening anytime soon, but the NFL has at least considered the possibility of it.
Exclusives
Selling commercials for the Super Bowl, once one of the least complicated processes in modern media is growing infinitely more complex. In 2024, Paramount Global will air Super Bowl LVIII on CBS and, in a first, on a separate kids-focused broadcast on Nickelodeon. In doing so, the company has created a few new wrinkles that TV networks in charge of televising the game typically don’t have to face.
Sales soared in the past decade at Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting, as the firm employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles.
Pepsi has been the presenting sponsor for the past decade, but the NFL is seeking a “bigger” platform for the musical event.
Fifty-five years ago, fans across the United States had the choice of two networks to watch the first Super Bowl. A giant exception was in the host city of Los Angeles, where fans didn’t even have one network to tune into. Back then, the National Football League blacked out every game in the local market, convinced that televising the game locally would cause fans to watch on TV rather than pay for tickets. Above: Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr throws a pass during the first quarter of Super Bowl I in Los Angeles. The Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. (AP photo)
The complaint estimates there are somewhere between 300,000-700,000 individuals in about 181 countries who missed out on watching crucial moments of the 2020 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
Costing brands millions of dollars in airtime alone, modern Super Bowl ads have a rich history and an even more complex execution.
The organization cites five times that Cox Media has pulled stations just ahead of the big game.
For Super Bowl LV, airing Sunday, Feb. 7, and pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, CBS announced in early December that its Queen Latifah-led reboot of The Equalizer would lay claim to the cushiest real estate in the business, leading out of a championship game that could draw 100 million viewers. Yet while following the Super Bowl invariably brings a supersized audience, is it always a bellwether of future success? TVLine has singled out five shows that unarguably fumbled the opportunity, 10 that in one way (ratings) or another (quality) scored a metaphorical touchdown, and one that, though highly regarded, merely put up a field goal.
Shares of Roku tumbled 7% on Friday after the streaming video company told customers it was removing Fox channels from its platform ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast.
CBS, which carried the game this year, will now do the 2021 Super Bowl from Tampa, Fla., while NBC, meanwhile, gets the 2022 Super Bowl from Los Angeles.
Viewers Say News Promos Beat Super Bowl Spots
For many years, we have posted guidelines about engaging in or accepting advertising or promotions that directly or indirectly allude to the Super Bowl without a license from the NFL. We are at that time of year again, so here is an updated version of our prior posts.
If the NFL’s recent decision to lift its longstanding ban on liquor advertisements is likely to make the upcoming season a slightly more bibulous affair, football fans shouldn’t expect to see the hard stuff on the Super Bowl menu any time soon. As much as the NFL’s media partners welcome the chance to usher in an untapped category, liquor marketers effectively will be shut out of Super Bowl LII and LIII. The league hasn’t issued any restrictions on Super Sunday spirits ads, but Anheuser-Busch’s existing deals with NBC and CBS grant it exclusivity in the alcohol category during the Big Game.
Plenty Super Bowl viewing — like other sports viewing — is out of the home, or at least at other people’s homes. This seems to be a growing trend. Over the past five years, Super Bowl viewing from consumers who do not live in the primary rating household (guests, or short-term visitors) contributes about 10% to the total ratings. For the past five years, on average, Nielsen calculates that this comes to roughly 11 million viewers.
Stations: Be Wary Of Using ‘Super Bowl’
When the NFL holds Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, it will use Arabic numerals for the first time. Even without the characteristic Roman numerals, the term “Super Bowl” remains one of the most iconic and well-known marks in sports. And, given that the Super Bowl is the most watched event of the year, advertisers and stations alike understandably want a piece of the Super Bowl action. But you should think twice before running advertisements for the “Super Bowl of sales” or the “Super Sunday Special,” as that may violate the NFL’s trademark rights.
Beware Of Super Bowl Trademark Issues
With the college football champion now decided, and the NFL league championships this coming weekend to decide this year’s Super Bowl teams, it’s that time when we post our warning about being careful with using the phrase “Super Bowl” in your promotions and commercials. Both copyright and trademark issues can arise at Super Bowl time.
Congress’s failure to reauthorize its terrorism insurance program (TRIA) has Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for risking cancellations of future Super Bowls. Congress needs to reauthorize TRIA before the end of the year or it expires, but the Senate failed to act and lawmakers are headed home.
Be Wary Of Unauthorized ‘Super Bowl’ Use
It’s that time again when broadcasters and advertisers need to watch their commercials and promotions to avoid improper uses of trademarked phrases — with the Super Bowl only weeks away, the Winter Olympics to follow soon thereafter and March Madness to follow closely after that.
After a one-year absence to evaluate the brand and the Greek market, Dannon is returning to the Super Bowl to promote its Oikos brand.
Getting Up To (High) Speed On Super Slo Mo
For the big game, CBS will take advantage of recent developments in 4K high-speed and high-resolution videography to not only slow down action in replays without noticeable motion blur or pixilation, but also to zoom in closely to see if a player’s foot is out of bounds or if the football breaks the plane of the end zone. Other networks are also working to push the envelope with high-speed, high-res cameras and Sony is working on next-generation sports production technology.
Big events elicit big social media chatter, but the social media rankings are not in the same order as the ratings rankings. According to the social media research company Trendrr, the No. 1 chatter-getter so far this year is MTV’s Music Video Awards, with some 19.2 million social interactions. Right behindit is the Super Bowl on NBC, grabbing 17.5 million social messages. CBS’ Grammy Awards special came next at 17.1 million,with NBC’s recent airing of the Summer Olympics closing ceremony right behind at 11.7 million.
CBS is expected to announce today that its Super Bowl ad slots are more than 90% sold out. The announcement comes five months before the game’s broadcast on Feb. 3, 2013. The 30-second slots are going for a record $3.7 million to $3.8 million vs. an average $3.5 million during the 2012 broadcast on NBC. If CBS sells 60 slots, revenue could exceed $225 million. Among the biggest repeat advertisers: Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay and Hyundai.
General Motors will not advertise in next year’s Super Bowl because it is too expensive, the top marketing executive for the U.S. automaker said three days after the company announced it was dropping paid ads on Facebook Inc. The 2013 Super Bowl will be broadcast by CBS, which is selling 30-second ads for as much as $4 million.
In front of some 110 million viewers on NBC and uncounted others online, British singer M.I.A. flipped the bird and appeared to sing, “I don’t give a [expletive]” at one point, though it was hard to hear her clearly. Both NBC and the NFL apologized.
About two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners use their gadgets to do things like text or post on Twitter while watching TV, according to Nielsen. So, for Sunday’s game, companies from Coke to Chevy are trying to reach fans on all the “second screens” they have.
While some advertisers have bought into digital packages for the Super Bowl’s first live video presentation on personal computers, tablets and mobile phones, many have not shown the same enthusiasm for the live stream as for the TV broadcast.
Using TV coverage from NBC, the NFL will stream the Super Bowl, NBC’s Wild Card Saturday Doubleheader and the 2012 Pro Bowl. The games will also be available via a mobile app from Verizon.
