Superbowl-ads.com Article Archive

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)

The escalating chatter surrounding Super Bowl XLIV is not just about the teams competing for the 2010 championship. The TV commercials that will appear during the game are also the subject of discussion and speculation. And participating advertisers will once again be confronted with the difficult question of whether the Super Bowl is a smart marketing investment or a wasted use of the budget.

TNS Media Intelligence has again combed through its extensive database to report on the past 20 years of Super Bowl advertising. From 1990 thru 2009, the Super Bowl game has generated $2.17 billion of network sales from a total of 210 different advertisers and more than 1,400 commercial messages.

“The Super Bowl remains a singular event for engaging the broadest number of consumers at one time,” said Mark Nesbitt, President, TNS Media Intelligence. “Because it is viewed live and experienced by a majority of the country at the same time, a commercial presence on the broadcast has great significance and impact for a brand, making each not so much a brand message as a brand event. It is why a presence on the broadcast lends itself so effectively to an integrated marketing effort.”

“As an advertising event, the Super Bowl has evolved beyond a vehicle for presenting expensive, stand-alone commercial spots that seek to entertain viewers and generate awareness,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research for TNS Media Intelligence. “Increasingly, in-game spots are being supplemented by elaborate integrated communications programs that attempt to drive traffic online or in-store, generate positive social media discussion, incorporate public relations effort and ultimately achieve a strong ROI.”

Something is wrong here. TiVo grabs data from how many times the pause and rewind buttons are pressed during the Super Bowl and makes the most frequently shifted ads the “top ten” ads.

If you watched the game, though, you’ll agree with me that there’s no way the Dorito’s “Mouse Trap” or the Ice Breakers “Carmen Electra” spot should be anywhere close to the top ten ads. I can, however, see people rewinding each of the aforementioned ads and saying, “What the hell was that? Someone spent $3 million on THAT? Rewind it again, I can’t tell what the hell just happened.”

The hype. The title. The glory. It all came down to one game. This year, it was the battle between the “un-beatens” and the underdogs. In one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, the Giants outplayed the Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. Whether you are a Patriots or Giants fan, viewers could find common ground in one aspect of the big game: the commercials.

Super Bowl commercials have always provided entertainment and an avenue of humor for viewers. Companies spent an average of $2.7 million for a 30 second spot, according to The Associated Press.

Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be the best. The very best!

Every year, we expect miracles — and every year, to be honest, many of them disappoint. This year is no different, though the culprit might surprise you – that vast new advertising frontier we call “the Internet.” Yes, the great equalizer has leveled the playing field; now bad is the new good.

Miller is calling out the dogs again.

Beginning tomorrow and running through the Super Bowl, the brewer will blanket the airwaves with a new Miller Lite ad featuring a Dalmatian, a longtime mascot of its chief rival, Anheuser-Busch.

The spot shows a Dalmatian sitting on a couch watching an earlier Miller ad. After seeing the commercial, the dog leaps off the couch and runs down the street, where it’s joined by other Dalmatians, which scamper out of a barn full of Clydesdales (another reference to Anheuser). The pack of pooches follows a Miller truck that reads: “Miller Lite Has More Taste Than Bud Light.”

Anheuser-Busch spent about $2.7M a pop on nine ads in this year’s Super Bowl – with seven of the spots devoted to Bud Light.The lineups are just about set for Super Bowl Sunday – not on the field, but for the glitzy, star-studded TV commercials that will cost close to $3 million apiece.

“The advertisers this year have learned how to do it,” says Walter Guarino, advertising professor at Seton Hall University. “They’ll keep it light and humorous, and I think it will be a real good year.”

Like Eli Manning and Tom Brady on the field, Super Bowl legend Justin Timberlake will lead a team of stars through 63 ad spots with an airtime tab that will run about $175 million.

After a 20-year absence from the game, Audi will advertise during Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLII.

Toyota, which advertised during this year’s game in February, will also return.

Audi will feature is $109,000 R8 roadster in a 60-second spot that will air during the first quarter, said Scott Keogh, CMO of Audi of America.

“We are going to keep our cards close to the vest until Super Bowl day actually arrives, because I think we have a dramatic message,” Keogh said.

By Phil Rosenthal and Tribune Media Columnist

The chief executive of Chicago’s Cramer-Krasselt wasn’t monkeying around.

CEO Peter Krivkovich didn’t just drop the CareerBuilder.com advertising account in response to the job Web site putting the account up for review. Incensed at learning the review was spurred by the performance of CareerBuilder’s Super Bowl commercials in USA Today’s annual poll, Krivkovichtook the unusual step of writing an internal memo that tore apart the client his agency had spent the last five years building up.

Ads Not So Super?Is the art of creating a creative Super Bowl ad lost? Corporate America spent about $85,000 per second of Super Bowl airtime, but many bloggers said most of the ads missed their mark.

Many bloggers were eager to weigh in with their lists of the funniest, dumbest and weirdest ads that aired during the big game. But Sarah Jean Snarker captured the overriding sentiment in the blogosphere that this year’s ads were “pretty snoozy.”

“We have once again been underwhelmed both by the game AND the ads that were supposed to be worth $2.6M/30-second slot. To be honest, I didn’t see ANY worth that much coin,” FairWeather Zealot adds. A blogger at It’s On My TV agrees. “I thought they all lacked that edginess we’ve seen in past years,” he writes.

“2007 was one of the worst years when it comes to Super Bowl ads. It seemed most companies either went the celeb or violence route, producing nothing near as powerful as Apple’s 1984 or as addictive as Budweiser’s Wassup,” YoungGoGetter.com blogs.

By John Kreiser

(CBS/AP) Katie Crabb says she constantly struggles to speak up and get her ideas across.

But executives at Chevrolet liked what they heard — and for the past four months, this self-described shy 19-year-old has kept a $2.6 million secret: She’s a big-time advertising guru.

Crabb won a nationwide competition for college students sponsored by Chevrolet to design a 30-second commercial for the company’s new line of crossover cars.

Chevrolet aired the ad during the Super Bowl, an event watched as much for the commercials as for the game itself. The average price for a 30-second spot during the game, which was broadcast Sunday on CBS, is $2.6 million.