Commentary

Super Bowl Makes Media Sense Again With Movies, Gold, Snow Globes

The Super Bowl media numbers seem more logical now: What has turned out to be the most-viewed game in history came at advertising prices that, for some, were lower than a year ago.

From a very simple media math point of view, some marketers got access to 98.7 million viewers at a recent price average (post-economic fallout) of $2.4 million to $2.5 million for a 30-second commercial.

Marketers who bought last year's Super Bowl event on Fox for an average of $2.75 million for a commercial only got 97.5 million viewers. Terrible.

While this was the most highly rated Super Bowl ever, overall U.S. viewers increased by just 1%  over a year ago -- but, again, at perhaps a lower price -- at least for the most recent buys. 

NBC sold about a dozen spots at $3 million early on. Still, even with the recent price drop, the network suggests the overall price average rivaled the average price of Fox a year ago.

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So, in theory, media buyers are a bit ahead.

But consider this: NBC ran more non-program time in this Super Bowl game  -- 45 minutes and 10 seconds (paid advertising and promotional time) -- than for any other other game in history. Last year Fox clocked in with 44:30. On the plus side, NBC offered up a slightly lower amount of network promotional time, as opposed to Fox last year: 7:10 versus 7:55.

Few TV marketers look at the Super Bowl from a CPM point of view. There is naturally much more to consider: pre-game Super Bowl press spin, post-game Internet activity, and overall media buzz.

Who really got a deal? Maybe it was the movie studios. For the first time in years, the biggest category in the Super Bowl wasn't beer,  beverages, or cars. Instead, it was movie studios, with seven minutes of total advertising.  Nine separate movies were advertised, versus the versus seven films of a year ago. And according to TNS Media, five of the top eight most-talked-about commercials plugged movies.

I'd also give honorable mention to those crazy Doritos creative guys located in the Midwest somewhere, as well as to lower-brow Cash4Gold.com.

Super Bowl media sense, then, comes down to gripping action sequences, gold fillings you don't need, or one perfectly placed snow globe in a man's crotch.

For TV viewers, you get what you pay for -- one free entertaining game where you get to finish that last cold piece of pizza.

1 comment about "Super Bowl Makes Media Sense Again With Movies, Gold, Snow Globes ".
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  1. Rob Frydlewicz from DentsuAegis, February 5, 2009 at 9:53 p.m.

    Wayne, you're confusing rating with audience size. This year's game may have had the largest audience, but it wasn't the highest rated Super Bowl. That honor is still held by Super Bowl XVI in 1982 with a 49.1 HH rating.

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