When the Indianapolis Colts take on the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, millions of viewers will tune in to watch the annual event.
But since the first Super Bowl more than 40 years ago, it has evolved into more than a football game; it’s become a media spectacle and ratings juggernaut.
“It’s really one of the last of its kind,” said University Advertising Professor David Koranda. “You just don’t get numbers like that anymore.”
The annual event is typically a hype machine, but the Super Bowl is just as much about the commercials and fanfare as it is the football game in many cases, Koranda said.
Advertisers see it as a chance to reach a larger audience than any other television program can currently offer, but those willing to shell out the $2.6 million average cost for a 30-second spot during the game also carry a lot at risk.
To respond, several advertisers have used the rise of the YouTube and the Internet to generate new ways of gaining attention even before the game, Koranda said. This year, Doritos held a contest that allowed viewers to submit their own commercials to run during the game.
“There are some people that feel like that’s letting the inmates run the asylum,” Koranda said. “There are some people who are like, that’s pretty cool, because a lot of people will be curious and pay attention to those spots.”
Advertisers use such tactics to create “buzz” around their commercials or their companies, Koranda said.
“They’re getting millions of dollars worth of mileage out of all the discussion, so it goes well beyond the spot that’s on TV,” he said.
Most advertisers take a humorous or entertaining approach to their airtime because of the nature of the game as a social event or party. But for some companies, this can be hard to pull off, Koranda said.
“It’s not impossible, but it’s very difficult to have a lot of hilarious ads about Viagra or diabetes checking,” Koranda said.
Others, such as Budweiser and Pepsi, have thrived with this approach.
University sophomore Kevin Massoletti, who described himself as a football fan first, said many of the commercials haven’t lived up to the hype or his expectations.
“Surprisingly, they let me down a lot,” he said. “I always expect them to be funnier than the average commercial, but the last few years especially, that hasn’t been the case.”
The buzz surrounding the event does bring a lot of attention to the game from the casual fan, Massoletti said.
“I think it’s still good because it grabs people that normally wouldn’t watch football,” he said.
Though most female students approached for this story said they didn’t plan to watch the game, University junior Michelle Moore said she also plans to watch game for the football rather than the commercials. Still, she said, the ads often add an extra incentive to tune in.
“A lot of the commercials are made just for the Super Bowl, so you kind of want to watch it just for that,” Moore said.
One of the biggest Super Bowl advertisers over the past several years has been Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser beers, which has purchased more airtime than any other company in each of the past six games, according to Nielsen media research.
In 2004 the brewer ran 330 seconds worth of commercials. At an average cost of $2.3 million for each 30-second spot that year, that’s a total cost of more than $25 million of advertising in one day.
Bob Lachky, executive vice president of Anheuser-Busch, said in an e-mail the company often begins producing ads for the game as early as September or October.
“By the time we get to January, we’re looking at 25 to 30 ads that we consider for the game, and from there we choose the spots we’ll use on the game,” Lachky said.
There are other factors outside the advertisers’ control that can affect a commercial’s success, such as how compelling the game itself is, Koranda said.
“One of the worst things that can happen is that in the first half it’s a blowout, so then everybody’s either drunk or doesn’t care, and you don’t see the rest of the spots,” he said. “If it’s a tight game, then you have a lot of people paying reasonable attention to the game, which means they’re paying reasonable attention to the spots.”
Women also represent an increasingly large portion of the Super Bowl audience – as much as 40 percent this year, Koranda said.
Though the vast majority of ads still cater to the male audience, female-focused advertisers such as Dove and Revlon are throwing their names into the event.
But many things have remained the same, Koranda said, such as the predominantly humorous and entertaining aims of Super Bowl commercials.
“What’s the frame of mind for most people watching the Super Bowl? It’s a party,” he said. “That kind of environment tends to breed humor and celebration.”
Contact the business, science and technology reporter at [email protected]