The upcoming Super Bowl will be well, super, in every way--financially for Fox, as a revenue bonanza for the NY/Northern NJ area, and in overall hype. And hopefully the game will be good too.
We all have known this Super Bowl is, as they say, a crapshoot—an outdoor event in the Northeast in early February, hence the snow flake in the host committee logo (created by our friends at Source Communications). The game will be played at Met Life Stadium in the New York market, where everything is larger than life. Will the weather cooperate? Will there be a polar vortex (didn’t know this term until earlier this month), or a major snow storm? Who knows? Check with us on February 3 and we’ll tell you the previous day’s weather and whether the Seahawks or Broncos won (PS Broncos will win—we think).
Want to go to the big game? Do you have an extra $4,000 burning a hole in your pocket? According to Forbes, and ticket data from Stubhub, the price for a ticket in the secondary market is roughly $4,000, up from last year when it was $2,500. Maybe watching from home is OK?
As we think about the upcoming Super Bowl, the 48th of its kind, we remember the game’s history:
1. The first “Super Bowl” was played on January 15, 1967 featuring the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers against the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Historians will remind us that the two rival leagues had not merged as yet and would not do so until after the third Super Bowl. Green Bay, led by legendary Coach Vince Lombardi, easily won by a score of 35-10. Al Hirt was the halftime talent.
2. The first “Super Bowl” wasn’t even “super”. It was merely called the AFL-NFL World Championship game and was played at a neutral site, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
There was less than a sold-out crowd, despite modest ticket prices ($12) and a local TV blackout. The term “Super Bowl” was an off handed comment made by Chiefs owner, Lamar Hunt based on his granddaughter’s love of the “super ball” toy. The Super Bowl name stuck and it took on the official name after the third game.
3. The first game was broadcast on two networks, CBS, which carried NFL games, and NBC, which carried AFL games.
CBS charged $85,000 for a 60 second commercial, NBC charged $75,000. The game achieved a combined 41 household rating with 51 million viewers.
This year’s advertisers will be paying $4.1-4.4 million for each 30 second commercial, more than $136,000 per second, roughly 100 times greater than the comparable cost in the initial Super Bowl.
And there will be no shortage of advertisers ponying up the hefty ad costs. In-game advertisers will include (alphabetically): Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Axe, Butterfinger, Cheerios, Chevy, Chobani, Coca-Cola, Dannon, Doritos, Go Daddy, H&M, Hyundai, Intuit, Jaguar, Kia, Mars, Paramount Pictures, PepsiCo, Soda Stream, VW and Wonderful Pistachios. Each of these brands will be vying for advertising infamy, or conversely, trying to avoid massive criticism for weak creative. High risk/reward.
The Super Bowl is like no other and its advertising impact is second to none. We’ll be watching. So will most of America and millions beyond.