Yes, this year’s Super Bowl will be a conflict for Donna Kelce as her son Jason (Eagles) will be playing her son Travis (Chiefs). Lots of football genes in that family for sure. As we all know the NFC Champions, our beloved Philadelphia Eagles, will be playing the AFC Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. A close game is expected, and the Eagles are a slight betting favorite.
The game also pits Andy Reid, the Chiefs coach, against his old team as he was the former Eagles coach—for 14 years. Philadelphia Eagles fans were, for the most part, very happy for their former coach Reid when his Chiefs were Super Bowl champs in February 2020. We strongly believe that the Eagles fans would not be as happy this time if the Chiefs are winners (though we suspect the Chiefs will come up short).
The Super Bowl is the mega television event of the year, where millions of screens of all kinds are tuned to the big game, at home, on the road, and at Super Bowl parties. This is the now the 57th edition of the big game, which first pitted the NFL Champions against the Champions of the upstart AFL in January 1967, before the AFL merged into the NFL. This year’s Super Bowl will be played on February 12th in Glendale, Arizona at State Farm Stadium (home of the Arizona Cardinals). Super Bowl LVII will air on FOX and game time will be 6:30pm. The half time show will now be sponsored by Apple Music and will feature Rihanna. That’ll be fun too.
The viewing expectation is for 100+MM U.S. viewers and millions more abroad. The going rate for an in-game :30 in this year’s Super Bowl is a record $7Million+, by far the biggest and most expensive ad event of the year.
As always, there is a list of heavyweights that will use the highly rated Super Bowl as a platform for their brands.
According to the ADWEEK Super Bowl LVII Ad Tracker here are the advertisers-
Workday
Bud Light
Budweiser
Michelob Ultra
PopCorners
M&Ms
Coors Light
Pepsi Zero Sugar
Planters
Remy Martin
Crown Royal
FanDuel
Heineken
Doritos
TurboTax
E*TRADE
Pringles
Downy
Avocados from Mexico
As we think about the game ahead, we are again reminded about the history of the Super Bowl, which began as the Championship game between what was then the traditional NFL and the start-up AFL. There were two separate leagues until they merged 3 years later. The first “Super Bowl” was played on January 15, 1967, featuring the NFL Champion, Green Bay Packers, against the AFL Champion, Kansas City Chiefs. The Beatles were still together and Lyndon Johnson was President. Yes, it was a long time ago.
Historians will remind us that the two rival leagues had not even merged yet and would not do so until after the third Super Bowl. After a competitive first half, Green Bay, led by legendary Coach Vince Lombardi, easily won by a score of 35-10. Al Hirt was the halftime talent. He didn’t share the spotlight with others. And he played a mean Flight of the Bumble Bee.
The first “Super Bowl” really was not even yet “super”. It was merely called the AFL-NFL World Championship game and was played at a neutral site, the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the stadium where USC plays. 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.
The first game was not a super event in other ways too. The game was not sold out, despite modest ticket prices ($12) and a local TV blackout. It must have been a good beach day in LA that day. The first game was broadcast on two networks, CBS, which carried the NFL games, and NBC, which carried the AFL games. CBS charged $85,000 for a 60-second commercial, and NBC charged $75,000. The game achieved a combined 41 household rating with 51 million viewers.
This year’s advertisers will again be paying up to $7Million+ for each 30 second commercial, roughly $233,000 per second, which is more than the cost of a full :60 on both CBS and NBC’s original broadcasts combined!
The question is always: Is this worth it for the advertiser? The firm answer always is: Maybe.
There are some mitigating factors when considering the value of an ad in the Super Bowl. The real “value” of Super Bowl advertising is not found solely in the mathematical CPM. There is no event where the ads are often as noteworthy as the game itself, where millions of Americans gather with friends and family to analyze the ads as they appear. To advertisers, this represents an enormous opportunity to introduce a new commercial, which is often part of a new mega-promotional campaign that extends beyond traditional advertising. And obviously the ability to view your favorite ads on YouTube has tremendous value.
In any event, once again the game will be the biggest television event of the year. It’ll be fun to watch the game (and the ads). Bring it on. We’ll be watching. Go Eagles.