A cat meowing about Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Peyton Manning serving Bud Light beers to patrons at a bar, and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies. They all have one thing in common: These companies paid seven figures to get their products in front of viewers during this year’s Super Bowl.
For the second year in a row, the average cost of a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl was $7 million. Even though many businesses are more disciplined with their marketing dollars and ad spending has slowed in recent years, the cost of a Super Bowl ad continues to rise.
The reason is simple: There’s no guaranteed opportunity to reach more people than the Super Bowl, and every other slice of the pie keeps shrinking.
“It’s a throwback in terms of reaching everyone at once,” said Charles Taylor, a marketing professor at the Villanova School of Business.
In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the number of opportunities for companies to reach a mass audience through network television advertising has dwindled. Popular shows are increasingly moving to streaming platforms, along with audiences. Increasingly, networks rely on live events, such as awards shows and sports, to attract viewers.
“Live events are still huge for advertisers, and they’re the ones that get the most attention,” said Frank McGuire, vice president at Sharethrough, an ad integration platform.
However, not all live events are created equal. A record low audience watched the Emmy Awards in January. Leagues like the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have struggled to maintain and grow viewership, and ratings for the NCAA men’s basketball final have fallen in recent years.
But the National Football League continued its dynamic upward trajectory, both in terms of viewership and media deals. In 2021, television networks committed $110 billion to the league’s broadcast rights over a decade, and the NFL continued to post record viewership numbers. Over 115 million people watched last year’s championship game.
The Super Bowl stands alone as a mass marketing opportunity on television. A decade ago, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $4 million. a decade before that, it was $2.4 million. Analysts say the rise is a result of supply and demand: With a set time slot and commercial spots for each Super Bowl broadcast, competition is fierce. CBS, which will air Sunday’s game, sold out of its commercial spots within a few weeks in November. Paramount, which owns CBS, reportedly has nearly a dozen spots to promote its movies.
“In this age of fragmentation, the Super Bowl is what television used to be,” said veteran media analyst Brad Adgate.
For many years, Super Bowl ads were closely guarded until game day. Now, companies use marketing campaigns that often start in mid-January.
“It’s about creating a long-lasting narrative,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, the chief marketing officer at DoorDash, whose Super Bowl ad this year is promoting a promotional deal.
Many viewers now turn on the Super Bowl broadcast with an idea of what to expect in terms of commercials. A January preview of a Pringles ad, for example, featured an unidentified man’s mustache, prompting many fans to guess it belonged to Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. (Indeed, it belonged to actor Chris Pratt.)
“You’re not just paying for that 30-second spot. it’s a four- to six-week buzz that you create,” said Mary Scott, a professor of strategic communications at Montclair State University and former president at United Entertainment Group, a sports and entertainment marketing firm.
The rise in female viewership for NFL games this season, made even more apparent by Taylor Swift’s relationship with Mr. Kelce, is another potential marketing opportunity for the companies.
The news that Kansas City made the Super Bowl was welcomed by health and beauty companies, which disproportionately target young women. That demographic has tuned in to more football games this season, thanks in large part to Ms. Swift’s appearances at Kansas City games.
NYX Makeup, a subsidiary of L’Oreal, has landed its first Super Bowl commercial, while Dove is back with a commercial for the first time since 2015. ELF cosmetics are being advertised for the second year in a row.
Kory Marchisotto, ELF’s chief marketing officer, acknowledged that having Kansas City play in the Super Bowl was good for business. Ms. Marchisotto said her company kept different versions of ads in the days leading up to the game, which was a departure from how Super Bowl ads are prepared. Companies want to remain as nimble as possible, responding to the specific interests of the game-watching public.
“It was a lot easier when you created a spot, spent a year on it, took it to market and sat back and let it fly,” he said.
At the same time, companies are investing more heavily to ensure they get the most for their $7 million. More ads this year are expected to feature interactive elements such as QR codes, which help companies track engagement with their brands in real time.
The technology debuted at the 2022 Super Bowl with a floating code for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company. The idea was used in more ads in last year’s Super Bowl — including one for avocados from Mexico and one for a public service announcement from a religious organization. The strategy also featured prominently during the NFL’s first Black Friday broadcast in November.
Together, Super Bowl ads are an annual snapshot of the economic and social moment in the country, said Ethan Heftman, vice president of agency sales at Ampersand, an ad consortium owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox.
“As long as you have new industries — auto, mobile, technology companies,” Mr. Heftman said, “there will always be brands looking for that broad awareness.”
