Why are companies willing to dish out $3.8 million (US) for a thirty second Super Bowl ad?

Here are some key reasons:

• Nowadays, there are fewer occasions in which a significant number of viewers watch the same television program. The Super Bowl has over 100 million viewers.
• For the most part, viewers do watch the Super Bowl live, rather than recording it. This means that more people actually watch the commercials instead of fast-forwarding through them.
• Coverage of the advertisements in newspapers and magazines has increased over the years. People are talking about the commercials as much as the game.
• Iconic Super Bowl ads, such as Apple’s 1984 commercial, are becoming increasingly popular. These types of ads may be celebrity endorsed and may only air once.

Here is a link to the famous commercial, which is based on the dystopian future of Orwellian novel. This ad was used to help launch the Macintosh computer. It only aired once, but it recovered its production and broadcast costs in one afternoon of sales.

Most Effective And Least Effective Super Bowl 2013 Ads:

First Place: Budweiser’s “Brotherhood”

From Super Bowl 2013, the most effective ad was determined to be Budweiser’s “Brotherhood”, which features the relationship between a man and his horse.  Budweiser’s Clydesdale horses traditionally appear in its Super Bowl commercials.

Second Place: American Dairy Association’s “Morning Run”

In second place, comes the American Dairy Association’s “Morning Run” ad, which features The Rock chasing a dairy truck in his search for milk. This is the latest effort from the popular “Got Milk?” campaign.

Last Place: Calvin Klein’s “Concept”

Calvin Klein’s “Concept” commercial was named Super Bowl 2013’s least effective ad. The provocative clip features model Matthew Terry flexing in a pair of Calvin Klein briefs, promoting the new Concept underwear line.

Second Last Place: Go Daddy’s “Perfect Match”

Model Bar Refaeli appears in Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercial, which has a close-up of the model kissing nerdy actor Jesse Heiman in a pairing of “sexy” and “smart”. There were very mixed reactions towards the ad.

In all, it appears that celebrity endorsements or sexy bodies could not make up for old-fashioned emotion, humour, and creativity in the Super Bowl 2013 commercials. Here is a link to the full list of the Most and Least Effective 2013 Super Bowl Ads.

Sources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/why-companies-pay-big-bucks-to-advertise-during-the-super-bowl/article8099853/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2013/02/07/most-and-least-effective-2013-super-bowl-ads/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/03/godaddy-ad-reactions-twitter_n_2612676.html

http://www.stylenotes.ca/2013/02/calvin-klein-to-introduce-calvin-klein-concept-with-super-bowl-debut/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1514339-the-rock-really-needs-his-milk-in-2013-super-bowl-commercial