I am sad to report that I remember the first Super Bowl, which was played on 15 January 1967 in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. I am also sad to report that I remember this historic game was not even called the Super Bowl. Instead, it was called the AFL-NFL Championship Game, back when there were two separate leagues.
It wasn’t until 1969 that the third edition of this game was called the Super Bowl, but that’s just a Jeopardy question waiting to happen. The collective fan base has retroactively christened the first two editions as Super Bowls also. Might as well be consistent, right?
Now get this. A 30-second ad in that first game cost $37,500, which after compounded inflation clocks in at $349,634 today. What a bargain, right? A similar ad in Super Bowl 59, which occurs on Sunday 9th February, costs more than $7 million.
Even after you consider viewership back then, which was a combined 51 million on both CBS and NBC, it does not account for the vast difference. Back then, NBC had rights to broadcast AFL games, while CBS had rights with the NFL. Super Bowl 58 had 123.4 million viewers, admittedly more than double the 1967 viewing, still nowhere near enough to account for just an extrapolation of ad revenues.
But since the Super Bowl is happening soon, we may as well get started with what will no doubt be multiple blogs over the subject. It’s just as much the Super Bowl of Marketing as it is pro football. As far as I’m concerned, I’m rooting for the Marketers.
Now that we know who will be playing—the Chiefs and Eagles—and the most famous person attending—that would be Taylor Swift—all eyes are now focused on New Orleans, the Big Easy, and a week or so ago, the surprise recipient of a major snowfall. Good thing they got that out of the way.
All of the available ad slots have sold out, which usually numbers between 80 and 100. Local network affiliates—in this year, which is Fox—have the ability to sell local slots, which are much cheaper. That explains how and why those of us in the Amarillo market see ads for Amarillo National Bank and other local businesses.
But now that I am knee deep into this blog and haven’t gotten to my point yet, I must get with the program: Do these crazy expensive ads even work? Let the debates begin.
Why else would a company spend ridiculously huge sums of money hoping they might get our attention on game night? To be fair, most big companies who develop special ads for the game continue using them for a month or two afterward, and some have even started dropping them now. Unless you are Doritos and relying on User Generated Content, it costs a fortune to create these ads.
Personally and professionally, though, I don’t see them as helping increase sales. I say this in spite of the fact that there are many people—like me—who tune in more for the ads than the game, although a Taylor siting is also good. You know the camera crew will be watching her every move.
If anything, these ads are not about offense, but instead about defense, because if you—meaning a company—don’t keep going year after year, one of your competitors will happily step up to the plate. It’s all about looking good.
I say this to contrast against the 2000 Super Bowl, which would have been #34, in which Dotcom darlings blew their entire annual budgets on a Super Bowl ad, only to go belly up soon after when the Dotcom bubble burst. There’s a lesson here: Don’t place all your money on one number on the roulette wheel of advertising.
Now don't get me wrong. The entertainment value of some of these ads is extremely high, often tugging at heart strings, other times causing us to smile and laugh. I can’t argue with that. It is actually rather rare to see a Super Bowl ad that is just your basic “Buy This Stuff.”
As usual, I will be watching. The ads are my focus, if only because it is my job. Someone will win the game, and we all know that Taylor will be there, the game once again her fashion runway. You can’t argue with the fact that she is a classy dresser.
I just regret that I’ve been watching this game for 59 years now. That’s what happens when you get old. Hey, maybe someday I will be on Jeopardy.
Dr “Who’s Bringing The Food?” Gerlich
