• by David Kaplan , February 3, 2005

The Super Bowl is all about bigness: from the players to the crowds to the half-time extravaganza, but especially to television viewing, and this year is primed to be the biggest chance for advertisers to reach the greatest amount of eyeballs, a study of past Super Bowl trends by VNU and its subsidiary Nielsen Media Research indicates.

For example, advertisers might want to keep an eye on areas like Kansas City, Denver, and Washington D.C., as Nielsen's research found that those cities had the highest average rating points since 1999.

As for last year's Super Bowl, ratings for the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers match-up averaged a 41.4 percent household rating with an average of 88.8 million viewers in the United States, Nielsen said.

The game had the highest average household rating since the 2000 contest between St. Louis and Tennessee, 43.3 percent, and the highest average number of viewers since the 1998 game between Denver and Green Bay with 90 million viewers.

In terms of TV spots, the 2004 Super Bowl aired 49 minutes and 25 seconds of ad-supported time, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, with 52 unique brands airing commercials that competed for viewers' attention.

The categories that advertised the most in the 2004 Super Bowl included automotive, beer, movies, soft drinks, and prescription drugs. Automotive doubled its airtime from three minutes in 2003 to six minutes this year, as beer remained constant at 5.5 minutes.

Movies decreased ad time by 30-seconds from 5.25 minutes to 4.75 minutes. The soft drink category added airtime from a mere 45 seconds to over three minutes. The fifth largest category, prescription drugs, was actually a new category for 2004, with 2.25 minutes.

Nielsen's analysts expect viewership for Super Bowl XXXIX, when the New England Patriots face off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville, Fla., to reach its highest ratings points, thanks in part to the fact that this is the first time in nearly 25 years - since Super Bowl XV in 1981, Oakland vs. Philadelphia - that two teams from the top five television markets are set to play against each other.