Big Dollars For A Super Bowl Ad example essay topic

Every year, millions of viewers from around the world tune in to watch one of the most exhilarating events in sports unfold -- the Super Bowl. The one-game, winner-take-all contest for supremacy in the National Football League has grown into more than just a football game opposing the best teams of the NFL. It has become the premier event for new television advertising. With half of the ten, all-time most watched television events having been Super Bowls; networks are able to sell precious seconds of airtime to large companies for millions of dollars. As we move into the 21st century, publicity for the game's commercials has come to rival that of the game itself.

Since it's beginning, the Super Bowl has drawn top sponsor dollars and high television ratings. But there are two key events that are linked to the phenomenal rise seen in Super Bowl advertising to what it is today. In 1969, Joe Namath led his New York into Super Bowl, where they knocked off the Baltimore Colts in one of the most shocking Super Bowl upsets of all time, giving the American Football Conference credibility and causing Super Bowl ad rates to skyrocket. Fifteen years later, in what is widely accepted as the most famous Super Bowl spot of all time, the Apple Computer was introduced, making it a household name and setting a new standard for Super Bowl advertising (Lohse 14). The incredible climb of Super Bowl advertising is most clearly shown by the current prices for airtime.

In last year's Super Bowl matchup between the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens, companies paid CBS close to 2.4 million dollars for a thirty second slot. That amounts to over 75,000 dollars per second. CBS also heavily promoted and aired the show: "The Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials", the night before the big game. "The Super Bowl has become a phenomenon in and of itself for commercials. It provides a breeding ground for advertiser competition and creativity" (Simmons 18). It is the true test of successful advertising.

Prestige, worldwide attention, and the desire to increase sales are some of the most obvious reasons companies want to have their ad shown during the Super Bowl. But there is another advantage that can come out of having your name or product aired during the big game. Free publicity. The social factor of public fascination with Super Bowl advertisements can create huge amounts of free publicity. "People are interested in Super Bowl commercials and watch them closely, which allows the media to give them a lot of attention (Goldberg 15). There is also a public relations value of having ads rated highly by media critics and the public, which often results in even more free publicity.

Obviously, this free publicity can be a definite bonus for a company, while helping to reduce the otherwise expensive per-commercial costs from a cost-benefit standpoint (Goldberg 16). However, as many companies have come to find out, paying the expensive airtime price and running a commercial during the Super Bowl does not guarantee the company will benefit from it's ad. Empower Media Marketing (EM 2), one of the country's largest media buyers, spent several years researching the question of when it makes sense to air an ad during the Super Bowl. Their study, which was released in 2000, focused on how people watch commercials during the big game. It reported that people pay more attention to Super Bowl ads than regular television ads. However, the study also showed that the average commercial is only remembered by 10% of people, which translates into just 14% remembering Super Bowl ads.

Obviously, the higher attentiveness is worth a premium price, but the price for a Super Bowl ad is 200% above the average. "For some advertisers this makes sense. Master Lock put their entire media budget into the Super Bowl for years and had great success. The problem develops when there are several ads vying for attention in one category, like the 'dot-comers' did in the 2000 Super Bowl" (Geddes 3). There are several types of Super Bowl ads that have been proven successful.

Advertisements that are funny, surprising, or tell a story have found much success in the past. However, experts agree that the most important aspect of Super Bowl advertising is the need to create a movie experience within the ad. 30% of viewers watch the Super Bowl with six or more people, making the game into more of a movie experience than a typical television experience. Therefore, experts say the best Super Bowl ads tend to be similar to movie trailers (Bentman 7). McDonald's had a campaign that followed this idea in the early 1990's where Michael Jordan and Larry Bird were shown playing the game of HORSE for different items from the McDonald's menu.

The Bud Bowl campaign, which first aired in 1989, also creates a movie-like experience. That is why it continues to be one of the Super Bowl's best known and most liked commercials. Also, Nike's "Hare Jordan" campaign, which appeared in 1997, followed the movie concept by showing one commercial in each quarter of the game, with the first three commercials ending with "TO BE CONTINUED... ". displayed at the bottom of the screen. It is hard to come up with a clear answer to the question: Is advertising during the Super Bowl worth the cost?

There are uncontrollable factors that could surely hurt a company in sending out their message, such as a lopsided game or poor time slots. There will always be a risk. There is no guarantee for positive viewer response. Jennifer Chang, a professor of marketing at Penn State University believes "in most cases, spending the big dollars for a Super Bowl ad, does not pay off" (Blakehorne 1). Chang stresses the necessary trade off between "reach" and "frequency". That is, is it better for an ad to reach and be seen by more people or by fewer people more frequently?

This may seem like the perfect opportunity for a company to make a splash in one sitting, but only a sub-segment of the viewing public is typically interested in beer, financial consulting, or athletic shoes. If this is the case, it can cause a company to waste a lot of money and coverage on people who aren't interested in the product. "In most cases, advertisers would be better served if they tailor the ad for a demographic or lifestyle group. And then show the ad more often during programs catered to that specific target media" (Blakehorne 1). The "reach" vs. "frequency" argument is one that has been long debated. Basically, it comes down to a company's desire to have the stage and be able to reach everybody at once, or reach a smaller portion of the audience more times for the same amount of money.

However, everyone involved in advertising agrees that there is no stage like the Super Bowl. If a company can afford the high price and wants to take a chance, the Super Bowl could be the greatest launching pad in the world for their product (Posman 1). On the other hand, spending lofty prices on advertising during the Super Bowl could be a company's fatal mistake. In 2000, seventeen "dot-com" companies advertised during the Super Bowl, paying 2.2 million dollars per thirty-second slot. Eleven of those seventeen companies no longer exist, either having gone out of business or having been bought out. "The reason why the "dot-com" ads failed is because they broke with the rules of advertising: present the product and its purpose", says Tobe Berkowitz, an advertising professor at Boston University (Bentman 7).

Most of the "dot-com" ads shown during the 2000 Super Bowl had little or nothing to do with the product or service the company actually provided, making the commercials easily forgettable. Many of them were creative, however they were only creative for creativity's sake, and they failed to accomplish the client's goals (Bentman 7). Steve Tipps, a senior vice-president for Copernicus Marketing Consulting & Research, feels the "dot-com" commercials were missing key steps, particularly the reason why consumers should try the brand. "The ads didn't work because they didn't tell you anything about the brand.

Apparently their strategy was to get a funny ad and the name of the company and everything would just fall in place" (Goldberg 15). Unfortunately, it didn't fall in place. Based on this past year's game, it appears that Super Bowl advertising is returning to normal. Only three "dot-com" companies participated in the event, while the majority of airtime went to blue-chip companies, such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Co, McDonalds, and Visa, who were looking to establish their new products. With the return of experienced advertisers, the Super Bowl has the potential to produce some great commercials in the next few years (Posman 1). And as the Internet continues to grow, it is almost certain that the "dot-come" will be back in the game.

When that time comes, hopefully they will learn from past mistakes. The Super Bowl game itself, will also continue to grow. The goal of the NFL, like any other business, is to get as many customers and viewers as possible. By bringing a more diversified market that not only follows football, but also ads, they have accomplished exactly that (Lefton).

Bibliography

Posman, Adam. (1-24-01). Bully for the Super Bowl? INT Media. {On-Line}, xx. Available: http: // web stat / article. php/835871 Lohse, Deborah. (1-22-01). The Real Super Bowl Competition Is Among Ads. Mercury News. P. 14. Blakehorne, Dana. (1-17-2001).
Advertising During The Super Bowl: A Mixed Bag. E-Business Report. {On-Line}, Available: web report / article / pnp/835901. Bentman, Hillary. (1-26-2001).
Dot-come benched for Super Bowl kick-off. The Daily Free Press (Boston U.) p. 7. Geddes, Darryl. (1-22-01) Corporate game plans for Super Bowl Ads. Cornell University Newsletter. P. 3 Goldberg, Marvin. (1-5-01). Advertising during the Super Bowl can be prime-time blunder. Penn State University College of Business Administration, vol. 11, p. 15-16. Lefton, Terry. (2-10-99). It Ads Up. Sport, vol. 90, i 2, p. 26-27. Simmons, Mark. (2-7-2000).