Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 5:34PM Advertisers on Super Bowl XLIV: The old, the departed, the new, the rejected.
Football's just the pretext for a lot of other stuff--not the least of which is advertising!
Next Sunday, February 7, Super Bowl XLIV is slated to start at with a kick-off time of 630pm EST in the Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. More than just the spectator sport of football will go into making this occasion successful as the venue for the National League Football [NFL] match between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. There's a long list of behind-the-scenes-goings-on that ride the coat-tails of football and make this, not only a national sports event, but an cornucopia of economically intriguing money-making arrangements—the most prominent one among the public is the cavalcade advertisements that will show during the event. Here's the important information to know.
The old and the departed: Who will be there and who won’t?
Annual participants include Career Builder and Anheuser-Busch InBev—they don’t plan to just be in the mix…they plan to advertise more than once. Advertisers who will be conspicuous by their absence will be Pepsi-Cola; this is the first time in 23 years that Pepsi will not be running an ad during the Super Bowl. FedEx as well indicated that the company will not be buying commercial time in the game. What makes news about both Pepsi and FedEx is the fact...that both are official NFL sponsors!
Other beverage competitors to Pepsi—Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Snapple are all going to enjoy the spotlight without Pepsi. No American auto manufacturer will showcase an ad in the game—for the second year in a row; other car companies will, however, be present!
Unusual ads that will run.
Topping the bet-you-didn’t-think we’d-spend-the-money category is the U.S. Census Bureau that will spend $2.5M for a 30-second spot for the 2010 United States Census. At a cost of about 3 cents a viewer, the Census Bureau will urge Americans to complete and return the questionnaires that will be mailed out shortly.
New advertisers you haven't seen before.
During this year's Super Bowl, more new advertisers will have commercial positions that ever before. These companies include little firms like KGB.com [founded in 1992, www.kgb.com is a privately held, New York-based company and the world’s largest independent provider of directory assistance and enhanced information services]; FloTV [the company www.FloTV, that says "You can tune in - even when you're out--just great TV that goes where you go"]; and Homeaway.com ["the world's most trusted vacation rental website]. What these companies are doing amounts to rolling the dice with only one commercial--a no-no in advertising. However, if there's a time to break the rule of avoiding running only one execution--it's the Super Bowl! Good luck, guys!
Another ad will run that some [but by far not most] consider controversial.
Tim Tiebow, a young college football star and NFL draft hopeful and Heisman Trophy winner, will appear with his mother to endorse a right-to-life POV, all paid for by the religious group Focus on the Family. While a politically charged issue for some, especially vocal groups, the topic seems hardly controversial when polls show that large proportions of Americans—in the range of 50%--favor the perspective to be aired.
The advertiser got rejected--here's their commercial that got the boot!
While considering for awhile the sale of air-time to the gay-dating services, ManCrunch, a gay dating site that sells itself as a place “where many many many men come to play,” CBS decided last week to omit the group from showing their commercial. Here's the commercial that didn't make the CBS advertising standards cut:
Advertisers made the cut--but at least one commercial that didn't!
Go-Daddy. com is an old-timer to Super Bowl advertising--but the company is memorable, in part, for its controversial advertising to begin with! This year is no exception--here's the execution of a Go-Daddy.com commercial that CBS said "no" to:
The slate is ready to roll.
On February 1, a week before the Super Bowl, CBS had sold out it’s entire inventory of air time—all without lowering it’s going rate of $2.5M per 30-second spot! The Los Angeles Times announced the final end to air-time sales at the close of business day yesterday with an article, “CBS sells out Super Bowl commercials.”
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