Every February, millions gather around the television to enjoy the championship of the National Football League, better known as the Super Bowl. However, this day has also become the mecca of opportunity for brands to advertise themselves and gain a slice of the big spotlight, for good reason.
No other television broadcast can come close to the attentive eyes that the Super Bowl draws. In 2019, 98.2 million people tuned into the event. To put that into perspective, the most-watched broadcast of 2019 that wasn’t sports-related was NCIS with 11.4 million viewers.
All of those eyeballs add up to a hefty price tag for companies to push out their brand, message, and products. The most expensive spots appear early in the game and draw-in a price tag of around $5 million for one 30-second spot. While this price sounds high, the demand is always there. Every year, the airtime for the Super Bowl sells out.
However, some brands have gotten even more creative and shifted how consumers can participate in Super Bowl marketing events by playing from the sidelines.
We’ve watched the strategy of going off television and utilizing other tools, such social media, grow immensely over the last few years.
For example, we saw Oreo’s quick-witted tweet go viral after the lights went out in 2013’s Super Bowl at New Orleans.
Volvo stole the thunder from their competition’s expensive commercials in 2015 with their Volvo Interception campaign when they gave away a free car on Twitter by having participants tweet out #VolvoContest any time they saw a car commercial during the game.
Now, some companies release their full ads or teasers early via YouTube to build the hype leading up to the big game. Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Evans, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, and Michael Bay are a few celebrities in addition to Sam Elliott in Doritos’ teaser video that have been revealed to be in commercials so far.
Video of Doritos® | Monologue Super Bowl Teaser feat. Sam Elliott
As this year’s Super Bowl nears (and every Super Bowl for that matter), we’re looking forward to enjoying the competitive nature of the football game at hand as well as who gains the yardage in the marketing battlefield.
