With millions of viewers worldwide, the Super Bowl has become one of the premier venues for marketers. The thrills, the chills, the laughter, the tears – and that’s just the advertisements! At a cost of $4.2 million for 30 seconds of air time, the Super Bowl is also the most expensive advertising placement of any event or show. Add the costs of designing and producing ads, plus the integration into other marketing tactics, and a company can easily spend upwards of $5 million at a single event.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Super Bowl advertisements have become a talking point during and after the game. It’s a big stage, and can also be a big risk. With an audience of 114.4 million viewers, the 49th Super Bowl is now ranked as the most watched TV program in U.S. history. Even at the end of the game, 74% of all TVs in the U.S. were tuned in and watched the final play. And days later, we are still watching ads and measuring results.
Watch the ads – which company do you think did the best, and worst, job on their advertisements?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Bring up one of the Web sites that have all the Super Bowl ads. These can be found on http://www.superbowlcommercial2015.com/; http://adage.com/special-reports/superbowl/148; http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/2015; and other sites.
- Divide students into teams of two. Have each team select a Super Bowl ad to analyze and present in class.
- What is the target market, key message, and offer from the ad?
- How does the ad integrate with a company’s other advertisements?
- Are the messages integrated with a company’s Web site and social media?
- As a class, after each commercial have students assign one to five stars for the advertisements. Which advertisement won your class’ votes?
Source: Nielsen, National Retail Federation, Ad Age Daily, Brandchannel.com, other news sources
