Is Advertising in the Super Bowl a Good Media Buy or an Ego Trip?

The Super Bowl appears to be on the verge of replacing the Addy Awards as the place where TV commercials are showcased and judged. In some cases the commercials are even the star of the show. But at $2.4 million per 30-second commercial, is the Super Bowl really a good advertising investment—or a creative ego trip for ad agencies and advertisers?

(PRWEB) January 6, 2005

The Super Bowl is the single most expensive media buy on the planet. Is it worth it?

To get a leading professional’s perspective on the question, we interviewed Ron Geskey, senior ad executive and CEO of 2020:Marketing Communications LLC-- which publishes the popular Thumbnail Media Planner and the AdMediaStore.

Q: Is Super Bowl advertising cost efficient—a good media investment or mainly an ego trip for ad agencies and advertisers with deep pockets?

A: The cost effectiveness of the Super Bowl has to be judged in relation to the alternative ways the money could be spent. Assuming there are realistic objectives for a sponsorship, there are three basic issues: 1) the TOTAL COST of a Super Bowl sponsorship, 2) how much AUDIENCE is delivered for the money, and 3) HOW EFFECTIVELY the Super Bowl communicates your message-- compared to alternatives.

For simplicity, I’ll base a lot of my answers on advertising media costs and media research data from the 2005 Thumbnail Media Planner.

Q: How much does it cost to advertise in the Super Bowl?

A: Understand that there are many costs of sponsorship: first, time costs—about $2.4 million per :30 commercial; second, additional commercial production costs since so many advertisers produce very expensive commercials to run only in the Super Bowl (let’s assume $1 million per spot); and third, merchandising and promotional costs incurred to leverage the sponsorship beyond a straight media buy.

The point is, the real cost per :30 participation could easily exceed $3.5 million—compared to $200,000 for one of the higher rated prime time shows in January (lowest cost month of the year).

Q: Does the Super Bowl’s large audience make up for the cost difference?

A: In 2004, the game generated a huge 41 household rating (higher rating with males and certain demographic groups.) This is compared to a 10-15 rating for the most popular prime time shows. Keep in mind that these households are tuned, but not all of the potential viewers will see your commercial because they are inattentive.

At $2.4 - $3.5 million per :30, the Super Bowl costs the advertiser about $58,500 - $85,000 per rating point, compared to $16,000-18,000 for January prime time. So with a $2.4 million budget, advertisers can either choose to buy 41 rating points in the Super Bowl or up to 200+ rating points in prime time programming or 250-300 rating points in diversified dayparts.

Looked at a differently, if the Super Bowl was priced like prime time, a :30 would cost around $700,000 rather than $2.4 million. That means that each spot carries a cost premium of about $1.7 million-- without considering spending another “million” for a special commercial.

Q: Does the “effectiveness” of the Super Bowl offset the cost premium?

A: According to some research results from Insight Express following last year’s Super Bowl, industry professionals think the Super Bowl is a lot more effective than consumers do.

There is some evidence that the Super Bowl may be slightly more effective in communicating the advertiser’s message than alternative programming. However, assuming that you pick alternative shows with high attention levels, high viewer involvement, obtain good commercial positioning, and so on, the Super Bowl’s advantage could likely be washed out.

Some will point to the higher recall of certain Super Bowl commercials as evidence of greater effectiveness. No doubt when very expensive commercials are produced by some of our best creative talent, higher recall would be expected. But how much of that is due to the creative vs. the Super Bowl environment?

Just for the sake of argument, let’s say a commercial in the Super Bowl is 30% more impactful than a commercial in good prime time programming. That reduces the cost premium in the Super Bowl from $1.7 million to $1.5 million per :30.

In conclusion, no matter how creative you are with numbers, it is hard to justify the Super Bowl as a cost effective media buy. What you do with the sponsorship in terms of PR, promotion, and merchandising will determine its cost effectiveness.

About 2020:Marketing Communications LLC

2020 is a marketing and media consulting and publishing company. Geskey has been a senior media and account management executive at Leo Burnett, D’Arcy, and Campbell Ewald.

2020’s products may be found at http://www.thumbnailmediaplanner.com and http://www.AdMediaStore.com. Consulting inquiries should be directed to marketing2020@aol.com.

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