Superbowl again defies the odds of TV advertising

Since the adoption of the internet as our main source of media consumption, television, and subsequently, television advertising has taken a hit. There is one event that bucks this trend: The Superbowl.

The Super Bowl LIV will kick off on the second of February with over 100 million Football enthusiasts watching the game. This is a fantastic opportunity for the biggest brands to target their audience. A culture has emerged where many, especially younger, viewers tune in just to see the 30 second ad slot.

Brands pour millions of dollars into creating the most hype and buzz surrounding their product with the ultimate-goal of making into the Top 10 of USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad meter.

One person who knows more about advertising during the Super Bowl is Doug Gould, former creative director who created two award-winning Super Bowl spots for Budweiser during a 34-year campaign in advertising.

The value of the advertisement spot is reflected by the love of the sport and the quantity of consumers peeled to the screen. Talking to Betway, Doug says ‘We have this many eyeballs at once – we should not screw this up. We should do something big. We should do something that amazes people.’”

“Fox has charged up to $5.6m per 30-second slot this year, an increase of almost seven per cent on the average price of $5.25m in 2019.

“The eyeballs are primary,” Gould says. “It’s a guaranteed audience of X million – whatever that number is going to be this year. The business of the business is the more eyeballs you get, the more you should pay.

Securing a spot is only half the story, though. To make their investment worth it, companies hire the best creative minds in the country to produce a successful ad.

That is something Gould knows a lot about. Now working as Professor of the Practice in Advertising at Boston University, Gould helped create Budweiser’s “Respect” spot in 2002 – named the third-greatest Super Bowl ad of all-time by AdAge – and their “Replay” campaign, which topped the USA Today Ad Meter in 2003.

With the 2020 election campaign fast approaching, it looks likely that current President Donald Trump will drop $10 on a 60-second spot.

“Politics has been injected into sport in the past – if you go back to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and then the 1980 games in Moscow – so I guess it was just a matter of time until it found its way into the Super Bowl.”

With the president and his rivals now clamouring for air time at the big game, it seems there is little danger of the Super Bowl losing its status as the most coveted advertising spot on TV.

 

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