By Guest Blogger, Dave Thomas, Online Content Editor for business.com
While it’s no surprise that advertisements during the Super Bowl cost big dollars, that hasn’t stopped many companies from opening up their checkbooks to market their wares.
Recent reports note that NBC, this year’s host for the Feb. 5 event in Indianapolis, sold its entire allotment of commercial airtime for the game before Thanksgiving 2011, having a waiting list to boot.
According to the network, slots are still open during NBC's pregame show, and those on the waiting list for the Super Bowl will have an opportunity to advertise if other companies forfeit their slots.
So, how much does an ad cost when more than 100 million people tune in to watch the AFC and NFC battle next month?
The average cost for a 30-second spot in 2012 is $3.5 million, with some time slots leading advertisers to spend as much as $4 million. The bottom line is you better have a sizeable amount of cash to spend if you want to get noticed on Super Bowl Sunday during the year’s most watched sporting event.
When you break down the marketing efforts of advertisers and NBC for that matter, at a $3.5 million average, the 70 commercials that appear during the game would lead to $245 million in gross revenue. When you take away the ad agency commission, NBC would take in just over $208 million when all is said and done.
There are also six commercials scheduled for halftime, along with a plethora of them slated to run in the nauseating six hours of pregame hype.
As a spokesperson for the sales and marketing team with the NBC Sports Group noted, “We should shatter all prior records for that day.”
As many marketing and sales pros can attest to, it isn’t just the televisions sets where people will be exposed to advertisements. The network is also selling spots on its live streamed broadcast of the game and on Super Bowl-related programming to be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network.
Among the companies planning to market their products during the game next month are Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, Dannon, Century 21, GoDaddy.com, and Bridgestone.
While most small businesses will never get the chance to market their products during an event such as the Super Bowl, there are lessons to be learned from the experience. Among them are:
- Always be sure to reinforce your brand and/or business. While some Super Bowl messages are cute and funny, the brand sometimes gets lost in the message. Marketers want consumers to remember who they are whether it is a 30-second spot or a 60-second one. Make sure you don’t leave people guessing as to what your message is;
- Logos, web addresses, phone numbers, etc. are essential. It is important when marketing to make sure consumers have the ability to reach out to you. You can have the best product in the world, but without a way for people to reach you, what good is it? Don’t make consumers have to work to find you;
- Redefine the targeted audience – This is why surveys, reports, metrics etc. are important. Make sure you are marketing to the right demographics so that your money is well spent. If your primary market is young women, don’t spend your time marketing to middle age men in hopes that they will pass the details along to their younger offspring.
You may not be advertising during the biggest television spectacle of the year, but that doesn’t mean your marketing efforts are worthless.
Score a touchdown with the right marketing campaigns, which begin with kicking off in the right direction.
Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a small business and business proposals, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.














