How the Super Bowl became the Holy Grail of media buying
Media buying refers to the practice of advertisers buying the actual form of their messages. It could be airplay on a radio or television network, space in a magazine or newspaper, or, more recently, banners on popular websites. The advertising industry was in advanced metrics before it was all the rage. The Don Drapers of the world have long concerned themselves with target audiences, key demographics, and ratings. Getting a message across not just to many eyes, but to the right eyes, is a precise (and lucrative) science. However, you don’t need algorithm-based analytics to understand why an ad slot during the Super Bowl is the most coveted and expensive 30 seconds of television.
Media buying during the Super Bowl is an extremely effective way to reach a wide group of people. The game has become an event with people from all over the country hosting watch parties that often draw even non-football fans. Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 had an estimated 114 million viewers, making it the most-watched television event in US history, surpassing the record set by the previous year’s game. This ever-growing audience has allowed the networks that broadcast the game to demand ultra-premium prices for advertising time. The cost of a 30-second slot during the first game in 1967 was $36,500 (about $265,000 in today’s dollars). The cost of a 30-second slot in 2015 averaged a staggering $4.5 million.
The ads have become a cultural phenomenon in themselves. In fact, it’s not uncommon these days to hear people say things like “oh, I just watch commercials.” In fact, cultural importance is part of the reason prices are so high. There’s no other TV event where people talk about ads at work the next day. There are now entire shows dedicated to analyzing and criticizing the ads (it’s unknown how much a 30-second ad costs during those shows). This echo chamber effect means that a good plug could be potentially invaluable (and bad ones are even talked about). A good location can put a company on the map and some of the best have become icons within the industry.
An early example of an iconic place is “Mean” Joe Greene’s work for a certain soda. Joe Greene throws a jersey at a kid after a game, belying his nickname. While the commercial technically aired a few months earlier, the Super Bowl immortalized it, in part because Joe Greene’s Steelers were playing (and winning) that game. Elsewhere now famous, a computer company hired Hollywood director Ridley Scott to make a 60-second commercial that played in George Orwell’s 1984 (not coincidentally, the year it aired) and had tracks from “Blade Runner” by Scott. The wordless, dystopian futurism of the competition was crushed by a sledgehammer-wielding racer, the opening salvo in the PC ad wars.
With so many viewers and so much hype, it’s not hard to see why football’s biggest stage has become the holy grail of media buying.