According to Nielsen Company, over 111 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl in February, 2012. That is nearly one third of our entire country! As a big football and entertainment fan, I find it somewhat comical that most of those viewers are only watching the game for reasons other than the sport: the commercials. Every year, people rant and rave about what new commercials companies like Coca-Cola, Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet will come up with. Then for weeks after the game's conclusion, like some wacky game show, everyone loves to play "rank the commercials." Personally, I have seen heated arguments and even physical altercations over which Super Bowl commercial was the best. Ridiculous? I'll let you be the judge of that. It seems to me that if I was a player in the Super Bowl and wanted the whole world to know my name, I'd almost rather be in one of the commercials than in the game itself. Okay, maybe that is a slight stretch of the truth, but how far of a stretch is it?
In 2012, the average price for one of these ads was 3.5 million dollars. For those of you that have trouble with division, that is roughly 117,000 dollars per second. Chris Smith, a writer for Forbes Magazine, wrote an article that stated that the rates for a 30-second Super Bowl ad could as much as double in the next decade. The return on investment for these companies that are spending that kind of money for a Super Bowl advertisement must me incredible. Now, I am aware that for a company such as Coca-Cola, 3.5 million dollars means absolutely nothing to them in the broad spectrum of their annual earnings. That is not what amazes me. It just seems to me that no matter how high the prices soar for a Super Bowl commercial, there will always be the powerhouse companies that are there waiting to pay it. So where is it going to stop?
With the number of Super Bowl viewers expected to increase each year, it only makes sense that the prices for advertising will also increase. Even a marketing major at Virginia Tech can make that connection. And within the next few years, the Super Bowl will also be streamed online for the first time, therefore increasing the audience and yes, you guessed it, further increasing the cost of advertising. It's an fast-paced, ongoing cycle that shows no sign of pacing itself in the near future. So prepare the chips and dip, chill the beer, enjoy the game, enjoy the commercials, and be glad that you aren't the one signing the checks to advertise your company during the Super Bowl.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/02/01/super-bowl-ad-rates-can-double-within-ten-years/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703507804576130502068719070.html
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