Part 1 if you missed it.
In Part 1, I wrote about the high price tags on Super Bowl commercials each year. In Part 2, I’m going to tell you why those price tags aren’t as high as you may think in the grand scheme of things.
As mentioned in Part 1, the average CPM (cost per thousand viewers) for top programs is roughly $35. The Academy Awards in 2011 had CPM of roughly $37 with almost 38 million viewers. Yes, 30-second spots were considerably cheaper – around $1.4 million – due to the number of viewers, but advertisers were getting it on a price scale comparable to the Super Bowl. It isn’t very often that advertisers can reach 100+ million viewers at once. The Super Bowl gives them that opportunity. While it isn’t economical for smaller companies to splurge on a $4 million 30-second spot, it can be a great investment for those that can afford it.
Another reason I believe Super Bowl commercials are worth it, especially in today’s world, is the social media aspect and viral nature of the internet. This is the first year I remember a great deal of Super Bowl commercials being released online before they even air during the Super Bowl. We have seen teasers and trailers before, but this year it seems as if a great majority of commercials are available to view online already. Because of social media sharing, the views some of them have received already make it incredibly hard to argue with the logic behind this. Advertisers are able to reach incredible masses of people -outside the U.S. included – before and after the Super Bowl with these ads continually garnering views. The biggest winner thus far has been Budweiser with their “Puppy Love” commercial – it’s incredible and every time I watch it all I want to do is drink a Budweiser and play with my dog. As of writing this, it has over 25 million views on YouTube. It can be seen below along with some of the other popular ads that have been released and will air during the Super Bowl. All of these commercials have millions of views already and are going to reach roughly 110 million people on Sunday. Comparatively speaking to the rest of ad spending, I firmly believe that Super Bowl ad spending is worth it if the company has enough resources to allocate to it’s marketing budget.
Budweiser: Puppy Love
Jaguar: British Villains ‘Rendezvous’
Kia: “The Truth”
2014 Toyota Highlander
Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt: The Spill
Kevin McLaughlin 