This Sunday, the Steelers and the Packers will face off in the 45th annual Super Bowl. Game aside; viewers are anticipating commercial breaks, believe it or not- and no, not just to refill their beers. Like most sporting events, the annual NFL Super Bowl is accompanied with a heap of marketing and advertisements- last year 30 seconds of advertisement during the game had an average price tag of $2.6 million dollars! Not considering the 90 million viewers that tune into the game the first Sunday of every February, what is it that drives companies to extensively self promote during those few hours? Furthermore, how do companies hype up their product and the game weeks in advance?
Extracted from an editor’s blog, companies like Budweiser have enhanced the benefits they are receiving from their multimillion dollar Super Bowl budget with the use of social media. In Budweiser’s case, they’re challenging consumers to guess the scenarios of their 3 Super Bowl advertisements- with each correct guess, they unlock a new online advertisement. After the release of Motorola’s suggestion of a commercial condemning Apple, marketers alike are awaiting a potential return of the 1984 Apple scandal, in which they featured a commercial condemning IBM. Sponsors such as Burger King and Nissan have also made their way onto the Super Bowl’s official website, whereas others are banking on their benefits coming from being featured around the arena and on the players themselves. Moreover, companies are excited to be featured as a part of the Super Bowl- just search up marketing from the game and look at all the lists made by viewers ranking marketing of previous years, be it the most shocking advertisement or the funniest. All in all, Super Bowl sponsors only continue to impress viewers each year with their marketing strategies: while many may criticize these companies for dropping millions to ensure each of those 90 million viewers end the game with their brand in their retrieval set, upcoming revenues exceed Super Bowl costs to an unarguable extent.