Every year the
Super Bowl is played and millions of people watch to see which team will win
the Lombardi Trophy. Many of those people will watch just like they have
watched all the other games played this year. Others enjoy watching commercials
which are always entertaining. As always, the NFL plays the big game at a
neutral site, New Orleans and Indianapolis most recently. This year is different.
The game is played in an advertisers dream and is, of course, New York City/New
Jersey!
Having Super Bowl XLVIII
in New York City is something many people never believed would happen. A cold
weather Super Bowl and Times Square has now been overtaken by the NFL, mass
media, and NFL fans from all over the country. The NFL has made a lot of money
from their television partners, CBS, FOX (which is airing the game), NBC, ESPN,
and their own NFL Network, have “all seen growth in their ratings.” The Conference Championship games on CBS and
FOX two weeks ago “each averaged over 50 million viewers” (Adgate). In fact, “the
NFL, estimates
of the economic impact of Super Bowl XLVIII on the New York/New
Jersey region range between $500-$600 million, which would be an increase of
20% over the numbers seen in New Orleans last year” which the area generating
all of that money will surely benefit (Belzer). The matchup between the
Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos has a great amount of appeal because of the
“best defense versus best offense” idea but these are truly crème of the crop
in the NFL. Everybody saw Richard Sherman, self-proclaimed best cornerback,
after the NFC Championship with Erin Andrews which spurred controversy of his
character as the media replayed it from ESPN to CNN. Then, of course, Peyton
Manning, “one of the most recognizable athletes” is looking for his second ring
after a record breaking season (Adgate). Surely, we are in for a big one in the Big
Apple.
Imagine
advertising companies finding out that the 2014 Super Bowl would be played in
New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium. The New York market is always the highest when it
comes to ratings, has a great night life, and already attracts millions of tourists
yearly. These companies knew that this was going to be big and that they are
going to have to be big to be seen. Bud Light, instead of doing their usual Bud
Light Hotel, “planned for Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Getaway to be docked
at Pier 88 in West Manhattan and is expecting 3,000 guests.” Concerts will be
played throughout the city and other sports teams in New York are playing big
home games. It is the perfect scenario for any company planning to promote
itself during the city.
Times Square is
already loaded with people, billboards, and advertisements. It is also
surrounded by restaurants, stores, and vendors. Having Super Bowl Boulevard in
the “media center of the world” is an excellent opportunity. “’Our partners are
everywhere,’ says Renie Anderson, Senior Vice President of sponsorships and
partnership management for the NFL. ‘There’s a lot of opportunity here because
there’s a lot of space and people in Manhattan’” (Heine). Pepsi, GMC,
XboxONE, and Verizon are some of the larger sponsors but at “$4 million per 30
second commercial” companies are noticing the increased amount they will have
to pay to be noticed during the game.
New York City is the perfect site because
marketers can take advantage of the thousands that will visit Super Bowl
Boulevard. For instance, I visited New York City Friday morning to see the site
for myself and it was a great experience. People from New York and New Jersey
will obviously come to see the event but surrounding states like Connecticut
and Pennsylvania will also likely attend. “A lot of consumers will come into
town specifically for those experiences and activations that are open to the
public” (Heine). According to Adam Kasper, CMO at Havas Media, “brands are
really starting to embrace on-location experiences because it is exponentially
easier to get the word out about activations now compared to the past, thanks
to social media. And marketers are starting to realize that consumers need to
actually touch the brand, rather than just look at pixels on a screen” (Heine).
The chance of
having a snow storm on Super Bowl Sunday also adds to the appeal for viewers to
watch the game. New York City has so much to offer to the NFL and its sponsors.
Through social media, smartphone applications, and television networks
including the NFL’s, people are paying attention to what is going on in the Big
City. It is truly an opportunity for companies to make a great deal of money,
as is every Super Bowl. The fact that it will take place in New York and New Jersey,
the largest market in the country, should prove to be one that will be very
hard to forget. The expensive commercial spots should not disappoint so make
sure you pick your boxes in your pools and set your DVRs, the Super Bowl is
coming to New York.
1. Adgate,
Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV
Viewership Record." Forbes. 28 JAN 2014: n. page. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2014/01/28/advertisers-rejoice-super-bowl-expected-to-break-viewership-record/>.
2. Belzer,
Jason. "New York's Super Bowl XLVIII The Ultimate Sports Marketing Case
Study." Forbes.com. N.p., 27 JAN 2014. Web. 2 Feb 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2014/01/27/new-yorks-super-bowl-xlviii-the-ultimate-sports-marketing-case-study/>.
3.
Heine Christopher. “Marketers Are Pushing
Hard to Be Seen at This Year's Super Bowl.” Adweek.
26 JAN 2014. Web. 2 Feb 2014. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/marketers-are-pushing-hard-be-seen-year-s-super-bowl-155214
4.
TV Spot: NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee. NFL,
2013. Web. 2 Feb 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-qIH3hK0Aw>.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your article, and despite that I don't know a lot about sports, found it to be a bit strange that the Super Bowl was going to be held in the Northeast this year, since it's generally held in warmer climates. I even remember reading an article about how the half-time show would be impacted by the cold weather, and how Bruno Mars was preparing for not only the planned show but backup plans in case there happened to be a snow storm (Florio).
Regardless, as you pointed out, having the Super Bowl in NYC was a great opportunity for advertising, as there are billboards, screens, and other means of advertising throughout the city. As the Super Bowl Ad Chart (Ad Age) pointed out, all the big names, from Anheuser-Busch, to General Mills, to Volkswagon bought (in some cases multiple) ads, not to mention smaller/newer companies such as SodaStream and WeatherTech bought ads. As the Adgate article stated, viewership was expected to break records this year, so it was wise for the companies to invest in these television advertisements. But just how many took advantage of the increase of tourism in NYC by displaying ads throughout the city during the weekend? Obviously the major audience was going to be the viewers at home, but NYC, as you touched upon, is full of tourists and is one of the top economic hubs in not only the USA, but also the world. Because there are so many major cities close to NYC with large populations, unlike when the Super Bowl is held down south, it allowed a higher volume of tourists, and more eyes to be seeing the advertisements.
The marketing strategy of Bud Light is always on the top of it's game during the Super Bowl, since they not only are able to reach their target audience (I'm guessing men over the age of 21) but are also allowed brand exposure for younger people so they become familiar with the name for when they are old enough to make their own purchases. But what really stuck out for me was that they worked in a way to branch off from their usual hotel and rented out a cruise ship. This was a great way for them to promote exclusivity, plan according to the area, and boast it as something that is unique. (1/2)
(2/2)
DeleteI also read an interesting article, which discussed the amount of security that was being invested into the Super Bowl as well. Over 4000 police officers, as well as bomb sniffing dogs were going to be on hand to ensure the safety of all attendees. (Dawsey) The article states that part of this upped security had to do with the Boston Marathon bombings that happened in April 2013, but it’s curious to think whether or not the security would have increased to such an extent if the event weren’t being held in New York/New Jersey.
Never before has the location of the Super Bowl been such a hot issue, which is why it was smart of companies to seize the opportunity. Apparently this year did not attract as many viewers to the Super Bowl as the previous year, as it went down to 96.9 million from 108.4 million viewers last year, however the amount of hype the game received as well as the advertising in the city still proved that the location of the game still had a major impact on the dynamics of advertising and preparation for the game, and it would be unlikely for this to happen again unless the game were held in another major US city such as Los Angeles, DC or Boston.
Works Cited:
Ad Age Staff. "Ad Age Media." Advertising Age Special Report Super Bowl RSS. N.p., 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
Dawsey, Josh. "Super Bowl Security Efforts Outlined." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Florio, Mike. "Bruno Mars Prepares for Cold-weather Super Bowl Halftime show." ProFootballTalk. NBC Sports, 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Harnick, Chris. "Super Bowl 2014 Ratings: How Many People Tuned In to See the Seahawks' Blowout of the Broncos?" E! Online. E! Online, 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMike, I agreed with a lot of the points you made in your post. The Super Bowl really is the stage for advertisers to showcase their products in the most creative and memorable ways possible. As Brad Adgate opens in a recent Forbes article, “As television continues to fragment and viewers…are watching more content on other screens, The Super Bowl is the last mass media event” (Adgate). The audiences of the Super Bowl are forced to watch the commercials instead of fast forwarding on their DVRs or avoiding ads altogether online or on Netflix. And since the Super Bowl is one of the last live events that has a somewhat captive audience, the need to make the ads entertaining is even more important.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, it’s actually quite interesting that companies plan months and months ahead to spend so much money on such a short TV slot. Over a week before the Super Bowl aired, AdAge.com released a detailed outline of different brands, themes and the length of the commercial spots that were purchased for the evening (AdAge). Unfortunately, despite all of the hype, this year’s Super Bowl ads were very disappointing. As you mentioned in your post, advertisers had a unique opportunity to appeal to the masses with the Super Bowl taking place in New York City. Although these companies invested incredible amounts of money and hired big stars to support their brands, none of them really seemed to stand out. I personally did not watch the Super Bowl, but I checked my Twitter and Facebook feeds throughout the evening and saw one general theme: people were bored.
I watched some of the ads online the next day and was similarly unimpressed. While some commercials were clever, like the 80’s throwback in the Radio Shack ad and the adorable animals in the Budweiser spot, most of them were predictable or just strange. For example, an ad showed world leaders putting down their guns and calling off wars in honor of love – until you realize you just wasted a minute of your life watching an ad for Axe body-spray. While pulling at the audience’s heartstrings has worked as a tactic in the past, the messages in these ads were just too disjointed with their brands. It seemed as though almost all of the ads were trying to cause a teary reaction from the viewers, while in reality a variety including more humorous ads would have been much more welcome.
Another part of the problem with the ads was that there was no surprise element. Releasing certain ads prior to Super Bowl Sunday has often been a successful way to build anticipation for the evening. However, the excitement for certain commercials – such as Dannon’s promised Full House reunion – paled in comparison to the actual airing. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that we are constantly on the Internet and sharing the latest posts, so most of us have naturally watched the ads ahead of time. There was so much build-up for the 30 second Full House ad, which Bob Saget and Dave Coulier only appeared in for a few seconds. In addition, the novelty of the Full House crew getting back together was somewhat deflated after their recent reunion appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Overall, as you said, advertisers had an amazing opportunity to capitalize on the Super Bowl this year due to its location and ability to appeal to a large market. However, the commercials as a whole missed the mark, which is unfortunate when the money spent on them is taken into consideration.
Works Cited
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014.” AdAge.com. Ad Age Media, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMike, I really liked your article and I agree with you overall. I do think The Super Bowl is just an excuse for media companies and advertisers to make money. The truth is the Super Bowl is a monopoly game. It is a business that owns a lot of companies and like every business the main goal is to make profit, and what is the best way to make profit? Well this year, the people behind the super bowl were smart enough to host the game around one of the, or perhaps the biggest market cities in the country, New York City. As mentioned in your blog, New York City’s market is always the highest when it comes to ratings . With high ratings, there is a lot of success as businesses make a lot of money. This year the Super Bowl is supposed to have an economic impact, as well as possibly attracting a lot of viewers, whether they are tuning in or participating in the actual event. According to Forbes contributor Brad Adgate on his article Advertisers rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected to Break TV Viewership Record, “This week Super Bowl XLVIII should exceed the audience delivery of the record 111.3 million viewers who tuned in to Super Bowl XLVI of 2012. Super Bowl XLVIII should set the record for the following reasons.”(1) Many sponsors and the event itself are expecting quite the profit from this year’s game, they mention reasons such as higher ratings, the actual teams and the weather as being part of the hype and bringing the audience’s interest into watching the game. New York city is the perfect location because marketers and advertisers have the opportunity to sell their products. According to the article, Who Bought What in Super Bowl XLVIII From AB-InBev to Wonderful Pistachios, With Many, Many Marketers In Between by an Ad Age Media News staff, “Fox Sports averaged around $4 million for 30 seconds worth of ad time during the game, media buyers said.”(1) In other words, advertisers have paid 4 million dollars to have their commercials up and running during the super bowl game. 30 seconds is all it takes for audiences from all over the country and even internationally to be entertained or should I really say exploited by the commercial’s product placement and advertising as they hope one member of the audience will be foolish enough to buy into it. Unless you want to buy a car or can even afford one and crave bud light you are screwed because you will be seeing a lot that during the commercials and a lot of celebrities as well. This year advertisers are aiming higher with better and creative ways to attract the audience with the use of their commercials. The big apple is the place to be if you want to make a good amount of money, not just because Manhattan is big but you have tourism and a wide variety of vendors who are hungry and will take advantage of this year’s super bowl and make the rich richer and the poor poorer. It isn’t just about buying super bowl’s merchandise, but it will be a lot of spending as well with food, drinks, transportation, and accommodations for those traveling from outside the state. At the end of the day, vendors, sponsors, advertisers, and all Super Bowl businesses are depending on us the consumers to make them money, and the sad part is that even though this year’s Super Bowl should be based on the actual game, it isn’t, it is truly based on us being targeted by companies who only want our money.
Works Cited
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014.” AdAge.com. Ad Age Media, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Before reading your blog post, I didn’t really consider what it would mean for the Superbowl to be held in New York/New Jersey- I’m not sure I even knew that’s where it would be held. That being said, I didn’t really think about all of the advertising opportunities that you laid out in your post. The campaign transcends the television screen on Superbowl Sunday and spills out onto the streets of the city. Not only do companies have the chance to air a thirty second ad, but they also have the opportunity to advertise in the always-crowded Times Square. With the added traffic due to the Superbowl, I can only imagine the crowds in the city that weekend.
ReplyDeleteI thought that one of the best ad examples was H&M’s ad with David Beckham. When I read the blurb in the AdAge.com article about the interactive ad, I was very interested. When I went back and watched the ad online, I didn’t really see how it could be interactive. I was a little bit let down, but I still think that ‘T-Commerce’ is a good idea. I did notice that there was a hastag included at the end of the commercial, which I think leads to your mention of the use of social media and smartphones during and about events like the Superbowl.
With the knowledge that this Superbowl was such an epic event- the best teams in each conference playing each other, the first time the game is played in an outdoor stadium, New York City (Adgate) I have to say that I was a little let down. Not a lot of the ads seemed particularly innovative, aside from H&M. Although I was unable to find sales figures for this ad, I assume that it will very quickly pay back the costs of the ad, with spur of the moment sales able to happen right during the commercial. It will be interesting to see where this concept takes advertisers, especially for those without the Samsung televisions.
Perhaps my favorite ad- Coke’s ad that featured the National Anthem sung in different languages actually sparked a lot of controversy. I was surprised by the comments that appeared on Twitter and their Facebook page- mainly ignorant people talking about how it celebrated immigrants who didn’t bother learning the national language and Said that it was disrespectful to our country. This is a perfect example of how social media impacts Superbowl ads and products. I find it interesting that singing ‘America the Beautiful’ in different languages is more of a cause for concern than half-naked actors and innuendos.
Works Cited
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014.” AdAge.com. Ad Age Media, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting and refreshing perspective on the super bowl. Usually the only buzz around this topic is who is playing, who is performing at half-time and technical data about the team’s players and stats beforehand. As an individual who watches primarily for the ads and the half-time show performance it was interesting to put a bit more thought into the location where the super bowl was held this year instead of shrugging it off. Though New York is one of my favorite cities one cannot deny that it is also one of the marketing capitals of the world and the potential for growth as well as exposure is endless. As you pointed out in your post that Times Square is naturally filled with tourist from around the world as well as native New Yorkers on a daily basis. This was an extremely smart move by the NFL to host the game in what seems like an odd location, especially because there is no correlation at all between the locations for which the teams play for, Denver and Texas to such a North state. On what I believe is a sheer strike of luck Forbes point out that “ Having the game in New York, the nation’s largest market with the potential of inclement weather, can only boost ratings.” The other interesting boost that New York City has to offer is that it has the capacity of space for people with the amount of hotels unlike certain locations in the past where it was a fight to find a place to stay after one was to purchase a ticket.
On the other end of the spectrum besides being the game was held in the same location as one of the most populated and marketing capitals in the world was that the predicted cost for advertisement space was the highest in media history. Forbes places the fact bluntly with their statement of ““In short, the marketers that paid an estimated $4 million per 30 second ad for the big game should be rewarded with a record viewing audience.” The advertisements themselves are always interesting as well as humorous but when as a consumer one puts more thought into them one can agree with the statement made by Creativity.com within their article that states “In a year where marketers continued to brandish new technology just for the sake of it, Creativity celebrate the best interactive work of 2013, which managed to leverage technology to make brands useful and meaningful players in consumers' lives, or to engage them more deeply with a brand's promise.” Which especially applies to the way in which advertisements were this year, the creators seemed to play it safe but at the same time excessively used celebrities this year to help boost sales. After watching the advertisements anyone with some media exposure can rattle off a few names of faces that made an appearance within ads this year, such as Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham, The Muppets and of course one cannot ignore the appearance of some faces of an all time 1990’s show with the rumor of a possible come back.
Works Cited:
"Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl Expected to Break TV Viewship Record." Forbes. 28 Jan. 2014. Web.
"Best of 2013 - Interactive & Integrated Ads." Creativity.com 23 Dec. 2013. Web.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your article and thoughts. The Super bowl being held in New York this year was a very much talked about subject. However, to be more specific the main subject concerning the Super bowl being held in New York was something that you alluded to in your last paragraph of your article. You mentioned in your last paragraph about the possibility of their being a snowstorm during the Super bowl. Before the Super bowl had been played, they were talking about on NFL Network about whether and how it would affect the players in the game and possibly the outcome. Some players were also talking about on NFL Network about how they preferred warmer whether or something in a dome controlled environment similar to that of New Orleans or Indianapolis. However even though many of questioned why Roger Goodell initially, I think looking back on it now it makes perfect sense. In your article you mentioned, “the New York market is always the highest when it comes to ratings, has a great night life and already attracts millions of tourists yearly.” Based on that alone, it makes complete sense of Commissioner Goodell to have this Super bowl here because outside of Los Angles there’s no another city in America that attracts such high ratings, and just people and money in general. You brought up a lot of good points about this Super bowl and the amount of appeal that it had going into the game. You mentioned in your article that the matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos had a lot of appeal going into the game. This is support by Brad Adgate in his article when he said “ both teams come into the Super Bowl with identical records of 15 wins (including post season) and three losses and were seeded first in their respective conference”. (Adgate) You also mentioned in your article about the popularity of certain players having an affect on the Super bowl, specifically Peyton Manning. This is supported by in the same article when it says “Manning is one of the most recognizable personalities off the field endorsing products from automobiles to quick service restaurants.” This is shows the importance of the particular players and how they affect the ratings of this Super Bowl in general. Another thing that you brought up in your writing, that I agreed on is you mentioned that being in New York City is the perfect site because marketers can take advantage of all the people who will be visiting Super bowl Boulevard. I generally agree with that because it’s true that many people were there to enjoy the festivities of Super bowl weekend. Even though the Super Bowl was held in New York/ New Jersey, I do believe many people from surrounding states came to enjoy everything that was going on. In fact I heard many people at school talking about it. Another class reading that really relates to what you wrote was the one titled “Super Bowl ad chart: Who’s buy what in Super bowl 2014” where it talks about the ad’s that will be played in the during the game and their duration. This is relevant to your wrote because you mentioned that Pepsi, GMC, Verizon ect are some of the larger sponsors, and you mentioned the “4 million per 30 second commercial.” The ads and their duration were also mentioned in that article.
Works Cited
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014.” AdAge.com. Ad Age Media, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. Without a doubt, the decision by the National Football League to host the 48th Super Bowl in New York/New Jersey is a big deal. Of course, we Northeasterners are excited because of the events close proximity to our hometowns, but this really is a big deal all around. I think your argument did a nice job expressing the significances of a NY/NJ Super Bowl. A NY/NJ Super Bowl brings about awesome opportunities for advertising and money making.
Your blog post pointed out that New York (more specifically NYC’s Time Square) is a natural hub of advertising. This culture of Time Square mass marketing lends itself perfectly to an event such as the Super Bowl. Because lets be honest, what is the Super Bowl if not a mass marketing frenzy. Brad Adgate pointed out that ‘the Super Bowl is the last mass media event’, in a recent article for Forbes Magazine (Adgate). American businesses and advertising companies are taking notice of this revelation and capitalizing. Companies like Anheuser-Busch, the Budweiser giant, purchased three and a half minutes of ad time during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast. With 30-second time slots going for $4 million, this only proves the power of Super Bowl advertising (Super Bowl Ad Chart). Car advertisements and other relatively smaller company advertisements will also be using the Super Bowl as a platform to gain big media attention (Super Bowl Ad Chart).
In your post you also brought up ideas of alternative advertising like ‘location experience’ campaigns and the ties to social media. I wish you went into more detail about the social media tactics of advertisers during this year’s Super Bowl. I also would have liked more information on exactly what companies are doing in terms of using Time Square to their advantage to advertise. I liked that you talked about the Bud Light Hotel; it gave me an interesting look into what companies are doing to promote themselves in the host city even before the big game.
In the blog your, you also mentioned the idea of New York/New Jersey as a great media market. This is important to consider because with a larger or more powerful market there is more money to be made. You state that the Super Bowl is expected to bring in around $500 to $600 million this year (a 20% increase from last years game.) In ‘Advertisers Rejoice’, Brian Adgate points out that the host city market normally sees some of the highest ratings and New York is the biggest TV market (Adgate). This factor should make for extremely high ratings at this year’s Super Bowl.
I gathered from your post and the article written by Adgate that football programming makes for high ratings even during the regular season. Your article stated that both Fox and CBS found high ratings while airing the NFL play offs. Adgate’s article highlighted the fact that NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ will most likely accept the award for highest rated prime time TV program for the third straight time this year (Adgate). These facts got me thinking about ideas of footballs overall advertising power. Football is not only closely tied to advertising during the first weekend of February, but is constantly tied to advertising media year round.
Football is a game that millions of Americans hold close to their hearts, but it is also a multi billion-dollar industry that cannot be ignored.
A New York/ New Jersey Super Bowl certainly lends itself to large profit margins, and your blog post did a nice job highlighting the key aspects of the big event.
Works Cited
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014.” AdAge.com. Ad Age Media, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Melanie Morse
ReplyDeleteMike,
Great job. I agree with everything that you have said here. Holding such a big game that brings so much tourism in a place where tourism is already quite heavy couldn’t be more of an advertisers dream, as you said. New York City, as the Super Bowl destination could have easily brought thousands of more people to the state, acting as a double “dream” for many: Attend the Super Bowl and visit New York City. Growing up in Maine and not travelling much, it would have certainly been a dream of mine just to see New York City once. After moving to Connecticut and visiting NYC on several occasions, it is different now, but I can assume there are plenty of people out there who have never seen the Empire State Building in person and used the Super Bowl as an excuse to travel. Imagine how many families and friends tagged along with those attending the Super Bowl just to visit the City. It would be interesting to find out exactly how many people came from outside New York, New Jersey, their surrounding states, Seattle and Denver to watch the Big Game, or simply tour around NYC the days prior.
I also agree that the weather concerns did bring more people to their television screens last Sunday. Though the weather remained calm and so did the game, really, the number of viewers was expected to reach a record breaking 111.3 million according to Adgate’s “Advertisers Rejoice!”. Adgate adds, “Although the audience delivery for The Super Bowl dipped last year for the first time since 2005, the last four Super Bowls have been the four most watched television shows in the U.S.”. No wonder companies pay so much for a 30 second commercial spot.
Speaking of commercials, now that the Super Bowl is over and the actual commercials played during the game have had plenty of time to circulate the internet, which many had already done prior to the game, which most likely can be attributed to an increase in social media along with price, I want to talk about which ads made the rounds and which didn’t. I unfortunately wasn’t able to watch the actual game, so to me, the few commercials I did see were most likely the best aired during the Big Game. According to Nielsen’s, “Advertising and Audiences”, Advertisers spent 5.6 Billion dollars in 2012 in the sports genre, exceeded by about 2 billion in the Drama genre (the highest watched television genre). Sports attract a lot of viewers, and the Super Bowl, itself, attracts even more. I wonder, though, if the increase in ad space value increased because of the location of the Super Bowl, as you suggest, or not. After seeing the “best of the best” commercials over social media, they were comprised of mostly of the big name brands that usually take over this time of year. I expected Coca-Cola, Bud Light, and other beer commercials to make their way to my laptop, but what I didn’t expect was the amount of car commercials this year. Almost every “Top Super Bowl Commercials” article included several car advertisements. Audi, Kia, and Jaguar seemed to top the charts this Super Bowl. I wonder if this has to do with the increase in price or not or whether New York City’s “luxurious” nature inspired these extravagant commercials.
Works Cited:
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. 28 JAN 2014: n. page. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. .
"Advertising and Audiences: The State of Media." The Nielsen Company (2013): n. pag. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your article. As a business minor and a huge NFL fan this was any marketers dream location. It’s the city that never sleeps, and its one of the biggest tourist attractions year round.
Everyone knew the great opportunity that lied ahead of them in New York, but how would they actually do it. I’m actually not the only person who asked that question. Bud Light’s Rob McCarthy and his marketing team have been planning for over a year. “It’s the media and nightlife capital of the world —how do you make a mark in New York City during the Super Bowl?” McCarthy wondered (AdWeek). Well here we are and the Super Bowl came to New York. How did companies do it? brands including Bud Light, Pepsi and Macy’s have pretty much settled that question¬—by going bigger, bolder and louder than ever before (AdWeek).
Being the huge NFL fan that I am, I made sure I wasn’t missing out on this opportunity. I also went into NYC to see what Super Bowl Boulevard was all about. The streets were packed with people and lines for events were long. Things from a toboggan ride, to the sets of ESPN, Fox and NFL Network, and even players signing autographs. If you thought you had seen Time Square packed before, you are mistaken. The amount of NFL crazies, either fans of the Super Bowl teams or not, packed the streets of Manhattan. Along with seeing Super Bowl Boulevard, I had a little inside access as well. My cousin actually works for the NFL and is responsible for merchandise and marketing. He was heavily responsible for the entire Macy’s store they had there. So after taking a couple hours of walking around as fan, I got to pick his brain a little and understand the difficulties that come with such a great event. He told me he had been putting in 14-15 hour days to try and keep up with the amount of things he had to deal with.
Knowing your audience and fan bases was something that Roger Goodell had on his mind when he picked New York and New Jersey to host the Super Bowl. As you mentioned in your blog, New York City’s market is always the highest when it comes to ratings. When you know this as a business perspective, you now know there is a higher probability of more money. According to Forbes contributor Brad Adgate, in his article Advertises Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected to Break TV Viewership Record, “This week Super Bowl XLVIII should exceed the audience delivery of the record 111.3 million viewers who tuned into Super Bowl XLVI of 2012” (Adgate). Actually according to ESPN, Super Bowl XLVIII had 111.5 million viewers tune in. This now makes it the most watched even in U.S. history (ESPN). Fox knew, with this type of hype, ads could be worth a lot more. “Fox Sports averaged around $4 million for 30 seconds worth of ad time during the game” (AdAge). To think about that, that number is crazy. Fun fact for you here, even if we had 4 million ads priced at $4 million dollars, it would still be less than our national debt.
Overall the Super Bowl and all it brought, including ads, attractions and much more was a success. The game on the other hand, not so much (coming from a broncos fan). But hosting the Super Bowl in this market was one of the best things for companies.
Works Cited
"Marketers Are Pushing Hard to Be Seen at This Year's Super Bowl | Adweek." AdWeek. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. .
Ad Age Staff. "Ad Age Media." Advertising Age Special Report Super Bowl RSS. N.p., 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
Services, ESPN.com News. "Super Bowl Draws 111.5M viewers." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. .
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I do not follow sports. I never watch a football game unless it is the Super Bowl. I love the idea of the Super Bowl party and honestly the only this that grabs my attention are the entertaining commercials and the tasteful wings. This year really surprised me that the game was held in New Jersey. I was not surprised because it is a bad place to hold the game, because I live there, but because of the climate. This game is the first to be held in a cold outdoor spot opposite of the past three, which were held in domed stadiums or retractable roofs overhead (Adgate). I noticed you said, “Having Super Bowl XLVIII in New York City is something many people never believed would happen”. This makes me laugh because living in Jersey, all I could hear about that whole day was why is everyone saying New York, it is in New Jersey.
Even though the address of the Super Bowl is listed as East Rutherford, New Jersey, New York is only a shy train ride away. Mike you had a great point when you said, “The New York market is always the highest when it comes to ratings, has a great night life, and already attracts millions of tourists yearly. These companies knew that this was going to be big and that they are going to have to be big to be seen.” Television partners with the game increased five percent in viewing from just last year. If you think about it the Super Bowl is really the last mass media event that people follow (Adgate).
The Super Bowl was played in MetLife Stadium which like I said means the City it right next door. “Clearly, no marketer wants to miss out on the party, and the city has partnered with the National Football League to transform Manhattan into nothing short of an advertising extravaganza” (Heine). The spot between Broadway to Times Square, which was named, Super Bowl Boulevard, was intended to help marketers give the people an experience that they will never forget. The road was closed off with a foam pit for the children and free pizza thanks to Papa John’s. Although these plans do not come cheep, experts say the payoff is clear. Unlike the television ads and billboards these activities let the people visiting interact with the brands (Heine).
Focusing on the ads, many well-known people were highlighted in the memorable commercials. SodaStream grabbed the beautiful bombshell Scarlett Johansson, Stephen Colbert was seen in Pistachios and H&M used every girls dream, David Beckham. After seeing Dannon’s Oikos commercial I think they blew Chobani and all of the others out of the water. A Full House reunion with John Stamos, Bob Saget and Dave Coulie was a 90s girls dream. This Agency had the right idea when they crowdsourced using Poptent to make sure it would be success and grab peoples attention bringing in revenue (AdAge).
Even with the fear of the cold and possible blizzard, the ad agencies didn’t think twice about dumping loads of money on the Super Bowl XLVIII. “Fox Sports averaged around $4 million for thirty seconds worth of ad time during the game” (AdAge). Good thing the snow held out until Monday!
Work Cited
"Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl Expected to Break TV Viewship Record." Forbes.
28 Jan. 2014. Web.
Heine Christopher. “Marketers Are Pushing Hard to Be Seen at This Year's Super
Bowl.” Adweek. 26 JAN 2014. Web. 2 Feb 2014.
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/marketers-are- pushing-hard-be-seen-year-s-super-bowl-155214
"Super Bowl Ad Chart: Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2014." AdAge.com 24 Jan.
2014. Web.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that the location of New York/New Jersey for this year’s Super Bowl must have been an advertisers dream. The Super Bowl already has been the most watched television show in the U.S. for the past four years, and this year it was expected to the record of 111.3 million viewers. (Adgate) Advertisers undoubtedly recognize the importance of this huge event and its potential to promote their products to its massive television audience. The Super Bowl has become famous for the commercials broadcasted throughout the event and it offers advertisers a unique opportunity not only to have their advertisements seen by one of the largest television audiences, but also to an audience where a large portion actually wants to watch the commercials. It is evident that marketers value the audience that the Super Bowl provides, with an estimated cost of $4 million per 30-second ad. (Adgate) This year, with the big game being hosted at Metlife Stadium in Rutherford New Jersey, the scene was set right by the New York City Metropolitan area. As Adgate explains, “Having the game in New York, the nation’s largest market with the potential of inclement weather, can only boost ratings.” This raises the potential audience for the Super Bowl even more, giving advertisers extra incentive to try and utilize this huge event for marketing.
I am curious to see how the actual content of the game influences the audience watching, and what that means for advertisers who spent all that money on a thirty second time spot to air an advertisement. The game definitely yielded impressive results in terms of ratings and viewers as speculated. According to a FOX Sports press release, this years Super Bowl averaged 111.5 million viewers, which surpasses the record of an averaged 111.3 million for Super Bowl XLVI. The same press release also revealed the rating at kickoff 44.5/70, ranks as the highest on record. (FOX) This can definitely be traced back to increased interest due to the games location, being the first Super Bowl ever played in an outdoor, cold-weather location as well as being in New York/New Jersey.
To conclude, this year’s Super Bowl was no exception to advertisers. As Creativity Online remarked in its article highlighting last years Super Bowl advertisements, “In a year where marketers continued to brandish new technology just for the sake of it, Creativity celebrate the best interactive work of 2013, which managed to leverage technology to make brands useful and meaningful players in consumers' lives, or to engage them more deeply with a brand's promise.” The Super Bowl continues to be an advertisers dream when it comes to marketing opportunities, especially being in the New Nork/New Jersey area, this year’s game was a big opportunity for advertisers.
Works Cited
Adgate, Brad. "Advertisers Rejoice! Super Bowl XLVIII Expected To Break TV Viewership Record." Forbes. 28 JAN 2014: n. page. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
"Creativity Online." Best of 2013: Interactive & Integrated. Creativity, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
Fox. Super Bowl XLVIII On FOX Is Most - Watched Television Show In U.S. History. Foxsports.com. Fox, n.d. Web.
Comment by William Vessio
ReplyDeleteMike,
I liked reading your article. I think the only people who were happy with the Super Bowl this year were the advertisers, the game was a bit flat and the commercials weren’t as great as most expected, but the viewers were tuned in, and the ratings were huge. According to an ESPN article, despite the lackluster performance, this Super Bowl set the record for the most watched television event in U.S. history, drawing 111.5 million viewers (ESPN Services). And despite the high cost of the ads, 4 million for a 30 second spot, you can’t beat that audience. In fact, The Atlantic did a side by side comparison, and the (CPM) Cost Per Thousand for the thirty second ad is about 35$, the same as the average CPM for any typical primetime television spot (Thomspon).
I can see also see how this major television event opens up a huge opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on it in new and interesting ways. The commercials for the Super Bowl have practically become an event in and of themselves, with advertisers releasing teases for their ads ahead of time, or by drawing on huge names in order to raise the profile of their spot. The cast members of Seinfeld and Full House, two much beloved 90’s sitcoms, briefly reunited after decades of inactivity. The commercials are uploaded on YouTube immediately after for fans to come and enjoy. There’s a lot of pressure to please with that kind of audience, but there’s also a lot of opportunity too. Integrated marketing has been a big trend this past year. Creativity.com highlighted the fictional news broadcaster Ron Burgundy’s interview with Peyton Manning on ESPN for example (Creativity.com). It grants the opportunity to entertain and to promote the new Anchorman movie simultaneously, while also drawing viewers who don’t normally watch ESPN to watch the clip. This kind of creative marketing could very well benefit the advertisers of the Super Bowl too, extending their 30 second ad spot into something that starts before the game and continues far after. The first example I can think of is Colbert’s pistachio ad. In addition to its spot on the actual game, using the Colbert Report host to advertise will also draw his fans to seek out his ad on YouTube. The spot also benefited from a brief mention on the Colbert Report itself, on its first episode after the Super Bowl. Suddenly, thanks to investing in the right talent with his own show, the life of the ad has extended far beyond its initial reach, which, again, was already pretty big with 111.5 million viewers.
Another big example from this past Super Bowl is Esurance, who used social media in order to extend their brand name into the tweets of hundreds of thousands of active viewers of the Super Bowl. By offering a major prize to someone for simply including their designated hashtag in their tweets during the game, Esurance insured that the name of the company would be present in the minds of millions of potential customers. This kind of integrated marketing is the next big step for advertisers, and Neilson is still trying to catch up to it, only recently incorporating twitter into their ratings system. The usefulness is already evident. "As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming," Chloe Sladden, Twitter's vice president of media, said in a post on the company blog on Monday. "This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating." (Shih).
DeleteAs this trend continues, companies are going to need to get more creative in order to reach its users, and fortunately for them, the ability to do so is already there.
Works Cited:
"Best of 2013 - Interactive & Integrated Ads." Creativity.com 23 Dec. 2013. Web.
Services, ESPN.com News. "Super Bowl Draws 111.5M viewers." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. .
Shih, Gerry. “Twitter and Nielsen pair up to publish new ‘social TV’ ratings.” Reuters. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.
Thompson, Derek. "Super Bowl Ads: Incredibly Cheap or an Incredible Waste of Money?"The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 Feb. 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. .