Super Bowl Ads: A Super Money-Maker

Photo by Christopher Alvarenga on Unsplash

Every 2nd Sunday in February comes the National Football League (NFL)’s most decorated event of the year: the Super Bowl. For sports fans, it’s all about seeing their favorite team try to win the championship. For players, it’s about being one step closer to making their childhood dreams come true. Beyond these main parties the Superbowl is commo=nly associated with, an unlikely player also awaits the annual event: marketers. 

Super Bowl 2022: Post-pandemic 

Most commercials released during the 2022 Super Bowl focused on using humor to give Americans a glimpse of hope amid the pandemic and the growing geopolitical tensions across the world. In addition to the usual movie trailers shown, the big-name companies such as Amazon, Nissan, and BMW also secured a spot and focused on incorporating their tech products (like Alexa and electric cars)  into the ‘new normal’ of a typical American household. But what makes this year different from the others are the additions to the event’s ad line-up. Among the 30 new advertisers, several crypto exchange companies like Crypto.com, FTX, and eToro aired their 30-second advertisements to a TV audience of 112 million. 

In line with the advertisers’ goal to bring joy despite pandemic woes, another element incorporated by some companies was nostalgia, which is a sure bet to win over the viewers. For example, Verizon revived  Jim Carrey’s famous 1996 character the “Cable Guy” while General Motors had Mike Myers portray his character “Austin Powers.”

This year’s ads greatly contrast the ads aired during last year’s Super Bowl, which tried to respectfully explore pandemic-related themes in line with the company’s vision. 

Why do Marketers anticipate the Super Bowl? 

The Super Bowl allows marketers to express their goals in less than 60 seconds uniquely. Companies had to pay $7 million for a 60-second ad placement for this year's event. Despite this high expense, the Super Bowl has proven to be a popular marketing outlet for companies because of its huge TV audience. Even when rocked with the on-demand streaming surge like Netflix, Super Bowl still has a steady audience base, with the 2021 regular season up roughly 10% overall from last year, bringing in an average of 17.1 million viewers per game. The game also draws people's attention who watch the show for the ads and the half-time show. A survey shows that one-third of the viewers rank the ads as their favorite part of the game, even more than the half-time show. 

The Pre-Super Bowl Marketing Hype

In recent years, companies have taken a new approach to building viewer anticipation for their Super Bowl ads. With the rise of social media, brands have created a successful marketing campaign that spans before, during, and after the Super Bowl. For example, Bud Light and BMW pre-released their advertisements on Youtube before the Super Bowl. Both promotions have seen positive growth in their follower count and raked millions of views in less than a day. 

This pre-marketing indicates that brands are trying to embrace the powerful world of social media by using it as a complementary tool to live TV viewership. However, this approach may be hit-or-miss. Pre-releasing advertisements can ruin the excitement and anticipation for the televised ad. Similarly, this approach increases the chances of pre-hype criticism. 

In many ways, the annual Super Bowl allows companies and marketers to build hype for their brand despite the costs. With more brands entering the Super Bowl ad line-up, brands will have to seek other ways to stand out from the rest. The future is bright for Super Bowl and the marketing world.