Monday, January 21, 2008
Super Bowl XLII: Advertising at $100,000 per second
by
The battle lines have been drawn for the Super Bowl XLII: the Patriots and the Giants. The only thing left between now and Feb 3rd is the build-up to football’s—and advertising’s—main event. Way back in October, AdAge reported that Super Bowl advertising was 90 percent sold out, so it looks like the Fox Network is already a winner. With advertising going anywhere from $2.7 - $3.0 million per 30-second spot, we are talking $100,000 a second for advertising time. Yowsa! Here is a rundown of which advertisers have purchased time in the Super Bowl and what they have planned for their considerable investment.
Advertising in the Super Bowl can no longer be considered just television advertising. It is event marketing par excellence and those advertisers who are paying $100,000/second know it. First, there is the game-day camaraderie as nearly 100 million people share a few hours together to have some fun and collectively look forward to watching commercials. It will also include an enormous volume of pre-game, in-game, and post-game chatter that will be carried out via cell phones, email, IM, wagering (private & public), blogging, website tie-ins, text messaging, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. And, of course, the Super Bowl includes a prodigious amount of PR associated with the whole spectacle—including the advertising.
The Super Bowl long ago superseded the main medium that carries it (television) and instead has become a medium unto itself. The Super Bowl intersects with all communication channels. Although Marshall McLuhan coined his famous phrase, “the medium is the message” back in the mass media era of the early ‘60s, it would certainly seem to apply today to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the medium, and an advertising message in that iconic sporting ritual is imbued with special significance. Consequently, the mere fact that companies have ads in that event probably has far more influence than the content of their Super Bowl commercial(s). Budweiser’s ten spots in the game will no doubt have an interesting message, but it is the totality of that message in the medium that says: Look, we’re America’s beer.
A commercial in the Super Bowl is far more than a chance to overpay for reach and frequency. People expect a commercial in the Super Bowl to be a debut—history in the making. In fact, viewers are disappointed when they see a commercial in the game that has aired before. I’m sorry, but running a previously aired commercial in the Super Bowl would be like Fox airing re-runs of previous Super Bowls instead of the main event. The Super Bowl is about anticipation—as much for the commercials as the game. Smart Super Bowl advertisers know this and focus their attention on creating an event around their advertising before, during and after the game. They are buying the whole package.
Year after year, people say they watch the game as much for the advertising as the game itself. That advertising is essentially a simultaneous side game, and it is fun for people to express, or to hear pundits express, whose commercial won the 30-second advertising competition at the event’s conclusion. Let the hype begin.
