Super Bowl Ads Price Too High?

I wondered when the day would come when the Super Bowl ads priced themselves too high for advertisers. CBS paid millions of dollars to gain the right to host the game. They know the game is one of the most watched events around the world so they can charge a pretty penny. Have they finally reached their breaking point?

According to an article in Advertising Age, "With just three weeks to go -- game day is Feb. 4 -- only 13 advertisers have fessed up to buying spots in the big game. And of those, just a handful -- Anheuser-Busch, Chevrolet, Doritos and Diamond's Emerald Nuts and NFL -- have hyped their presence with pregame marketing."

"Some of the advertisers just don't want to say who they are," one CBS executive said. "This has something to do with creative and the dollars, the publicity about spending $2.6 million on a spot."

This is a problem. In years past, companies spent a lot of time hyping up their commericals via PR and marketing before the big game. Companies now are looking at new ways to break away from the clutter.

From today’s USA Today:

"For most Super Bowl advertisers, the punch line of their big-budget ad is a closely guarded secret until it airs. Only hints about plot or celebrity stars are dropped to try to tease interest. Even more unusual, Nationwide plans to post the ad on its website on Jan. 29 — a week before the big game — and may post it elsewhere, too, such as on YouTube. Like most game advertisers, it put its 2006 Super Bowl ad online only after the game."

It will be interesting to see if CBS is able to raise the price for ads next year. There is going to come a time when Board of Directors and stockholders are going to frown if companies are spending three million dollars for one 30 second ad.