Understanding more about the “Big Game”: Super Bowl Articles
#1: Super Bowl's Arizona host may be on the hook for millions (CBSnew.com)
Super Bowl host cities can see a major economic boost when the NFL comes to town.
But the mayor of Glendale, Arizona - home to Super Bowl XLIX - is questioning the money-making
potential of this year's big game, CBS News' David Begnaud reports.
"I think if you looked in the till at the end of the day, I think you'll have less money in it than
came in," said Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers.
Weiers suspects that when the sun sets on Super Bowl XLIX, the only real loser may be his city.
"I'm sure that we're going to spend $3 million," Weiers said. "I would hope, in tax revenues, that we can
actually account for well over a million, probably 1.2, 3."
Roughly, that would be a $2 million loss, and he's basing his projection on history. When
Glendale hosted the Super Bowl in 2008, the city estimates it lost $1.6 million.
"We brought in less money than we spent, just bottom line," Weiers said.
University of Phoenix stadium, where Super Bowl XLIX is being held
The biggest expense then and now: public safety.
"The cost [of public safety] ranging from about $2.5 to $3.5 million," he said.
Arizona legislators rejected a bill that would've reimbursed the city of Glendale for half of the
public-safety cost. Weiers said the state should pay because it benefits from the game.
"If we don't have the event, the state makes no money," Weiers said. "If we have the event, the
state makes far more than what our cost to public safety is. It's a win-win."
The cost of public safety is just one in a list of expenses a city has to accept when it wins the
chance to host the world's largest single-day event. Among the NFL's other demands: Police escorts, free
parking spaces, access to golf courses and a bowling alley and catering discounts.
"They can get away with it because it's the Super Bowl," said Robert Tuchman, president of
Goviva, a sports and entertainment marketing company. "And the value that they're bringing to that city
definitely far outweighs the demands that they put on those cities, or what they have to succumb to, to
actually host the event."
The NFL says its host committees have estimated as much as $600 million in economic benefits
to a city that hosts the championship game. Some economists lower that number to $50 million.
In nearby Phoenix, Mayor Greg Stanton sees more benefit than risk.
"Look, if you want to be in the Super Bowl-hosting business, there's not a lot of negotiation that
goes on with the NFL," Stanton said. "They have certain requirements, but I believe as mayor it is
certainly worthwhile for us to put our best face forward to the rest of the world."
In Phoenix, they're building the NFL Experience - a Disneyland-like arcade of football
memorabilia and entertainment that has in the past attracted 200,000 fans.
"Downtown Phoenix will be the place to be - again the centralized location for all the Super
Bowl-related activities," said Devney Preuss with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee.
"I'm not upset about that," Weiers said. "We don't have the restaurants and things in Glendale
that we'd need to accommodate that many people."
The greatest benefit to Glendale may be the public exposure in front of a worldwide audience.
"There's a big, big marketing value there that people pay millions and millions of dollars for,"
Tuchman said.
"People tried to put a value to that; I think they estimated last time $13 million if you had to pay
for that exposure," Weiers said. "Well that's pretty substantial, but how do you go back and verify that
you actually got benefit from that?"
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Questioning that, and other assurances made by the NFL, has left Weiers with what he calls a lukewarm
relationship with the league.
"I need them a lot worse than they need me, but my first and foremost responsibility is to my
citizens," he said.
But for the mayor, it's worth the worry to the have one of the world's most popular games
touch down in his town.
"Overall, with the conditions we talked about," Weiers said, "absolutely."
#2: Super expensive: Cheapest Super Bowl ticket costs over $8,000
By John Breech | CBSSports.com
January 29, 2015 4:48 pm ET
Watching the Seahawks and Patriots play on Sunday will not be cheap. (USATSI)
If you want to go to the Super Bowl this year, hopefully you have $8,000 tucked away
somewhere because that's what the cheapest ticket into Sunday's game is going to cost you -- and you
can thank ticket brokers for that.
The Super Bowl's usually a lucrative time for brokers, but that doesn't look like it will be the case
this year.
Broker's make their money by putting Super Bowl tickets on sale right after the AFC and NFC
title games, when prices are generally at their highest.
Fans will buy the tickets, then the brokers will use that money to buy the actual tickets at a later
point when the tickets are selling for a lower price.
For example, if a fan buys a ticket on StubHub for $3,500 the day after the AFC and NFC title
games, the broker doesn't usually have the ticket in hand yet. The broker's hope is that the ticket will
drop in price and then they'll buy it for cheaper, something known as "shorting" the market.
In this case, if a broker ended up buying a ticket for $2,700, they just made $800 because they
already sold the ticket on StubHub for $3,500.
In the chart below, you can see how this works. Two years ago, the average price for a Super
Bowl ticket peaked 13 days for the Super Bowl. Last February, the peak came on the same day the
Seahawks and Broncos won their NFC and AFC title games, 14 days before the Super Bowl.
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For 2015, the numbers in bold are where the market should have gone, so tickets should have
been going for about an average of $1,822 on Thursday (Three days before the game). Instead, ticket
prices have shot up astronomically.
"Everyone in the business had seen that shorting had been the right move," an anonymous
broker told ESPN.com. "For the last five years it had been that way."
Now it's not that way though.
The cheapest ticket on StubHub on Thursday was going for $8,070, but that was only if you
wanted to sit in the upper corner by yourself.
For a pair of tickets, you know if you want to sit with someone, Thursday's cheapest price was
$8,500 each ($17,000 total) and that was found on the NFL's official ticket exchange.
Of course, some people bought their tickets before the market went crazy. According to
StubHub, the cheapest Super Bowl ticket sold on its site went for $937, but that was sold on Jan. 20.
If paying for Super Bowl tickets isn't your thing, you can always follow Jay Feely on Twitter, he's
giving tickets away. I'm guessing he doesn't know how much their worth.
#3: Yes, A Super Bowl Ad Really Is Worth $4 Million
This article is by Rob Siltanen, founder and chief creative officer of Siltanen & Partners, a Los Angelesbased advertising agency. Mr. Siltanen has created several Super Bowl commercials for major clients
including Skechers. His commercial “To the crazy ones” launched Apple AAPL +3.1%’s celebrated “Think
different” campaign.
Last year the Super Bowl was the most watched event in America with more than 108 million
viewers, but the really fascinating thing is why people watched. Several studies have proven that 50% of
the Super Bowl audience tunes in just to watch the ads.
Commercials are often considered interruptions to the entertainment we love. But Super Bowl
ads are different—instead of being intruders, they are like the “must have” guests that keep a party
rockin’.
Despite America’s love affair with Super Bowl commercials—many marketers believe their
enormous cost is not worth the price. This year, a 30-second spot is an eye-popping $4 million while a
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60-second spot goes for a jaw-dropping $8 million. And let’s not forget the cost of producing a Super
Bowl commercial. The average Super Bowl spot has a production cost that’s north of $1 million and,
based on how extravagant the concept is, some can easily double or triple this price.
Take this enormous cost, mix it with the possibility of receiving poor creative reviews, and
combine it all with the fact that you have zero guarantee your brand’s sales will increase—and you can
see why a lot marketers don’t want any part of the Super Bowl.
I have long believed the Super Bowl to be one of the smartest investments a company can
possibly make. In fact, the Super Bowl makes more sense today than ever before.
#4: Why the big game is the nation’s biggest bargain.
When I say the Super Bowl is one of the best investments a brand can possibly make, people
often reply, “That’s easy for you to say—it’s not your money on the line.” That’s true, but only partially.
As the owner of an ad agency, my income comes from the continued success of our clients and if we fail
them, it’s virtually certain our agency will be fired. So I do have a certain amount of skin in the game. But
my enthusiasm for the Super Bowl isn’t because I love to gamble—quite the contrary. It’s because I
prefer to play it safe with money. And, for good marketers with smart and creative ad agencies, the
Super Bowl is one the safest bets I’ve ever seen. What other venue better assures that people are going
to watch your commercial or talk about your brand more than being on the Super Bowl? What other
venue says you’re a first-rate, big-time, trustworthy brand more than the Super Bowl? What other place
allows you to catch the eyes of 108 million men and women with one fell swoop? What event can better
excite and motivate your internal staff, sales force, or franchise network? What event can better tie-in
and harness the power of digital and social media? And what other event better allows your brand and
products to be talked about for weeks leading up to the event, during the event, and for weeks, months,
and even years after the event?
There isn’t one.
The PR value and “replay value” of a great Super Bowl spot alone can be worth the game’s high
media cost.
In 2012 and 2013, we created Super Bowl spots that helped introduce a new line of
performance running shoes for Skechers. These spots worked in combination with a PR push, a social
media effort, theme-related window displays, and in-store materials. The fun, engaging 30-second spots
ranked among the highest in consumer likability polls, and they were featured on shows ranging from
Good Morning America and The Colbert Report to The Tonight Show. The spots were also replayed in
their entirety on over 200 news stations across the country, were reported on by hundreds of
newspapers, were shown and written about on hundreds of blogs, discussed on the radio, and received
millions of YouTube hits. The value of the PR garnered from these spots easily quadrupled the actual
Super Bowl media cost.
But advertising and PR buzz is worthless if it doesn’t lead to sales. So what has happened with
Skechers sales since that Super Bowl effort in February of 2012? Well, over the past two years Skechers
has increased its sales by an average of 26% and its stock price hit the point of tripling. Meanwhile, its
performance shoe division was recently named “Brand of the Year” by the footwear industry’s largest
trade magazine.
Can all of this success be attributed to the Super Bowl? No. Skechers has made a number of
excellent moves during this period and they have really good products. But there’s no denying that
having the right Super Bowl advertising effort served as a lightening rod for the entire Skechers brand.
The magical power of the Super Bowl has also played a key role in redefining and jump-starting
sales for brands such as Audi Audi and Chrysler. Audi has now been in seven-straight Super Bowls, and
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with cool commercials like last year’s 60-second “Prom” spot, it’s no surprise that the carmaker has
become the new darling of the luxury-car segment—doubling their market share since 2006.
Chrysler has also leveraged the Super Bowl with “game-changing” commercial efforts over the
past several years. They debuted on the event in 2011 with a blockbuster 2-minute spot starring
Eminem and followed it up in 2012 with the stellar 2-minute Clint Eastwood-starring “Half-time in
America” spot, and over the past three years their sales have shot up by an impressive 54%.
#5: Should you go or should you stay?
The Super Bowl is not for everybody or every brand. If you have a serious message you need to
convey, you might think twice about delivering it in front of an audience that is wired to party. It is my
belief that delivering a serious message in this venue requires at least a one-minute spot because it
takes a good thirty seconds to put the audience in the proper mood. The Chrysler Eminem spot was twominutes long, as was last year’s “God made a farmer” Dodge truck spot —which, in my opinion, was one
of the most impressive commercials in the game. If you don’t have huge money to spend on an
extended length spot, other tent-pole events like the Academy Awards and Grammys might be a wise,
cost-effective alternative.
The Super Bowl also isn’t a good place if you don’t like public scrutiny. The game brings with it
every type of rating poll, measuring system, and press review imaginable. Come Monday morning, your
brand’s commercial performance will be ranked against all competitors and talked about via TV,
newspapers and social media across the world.
But if you want to give your brand or product instant notoriety and the buzz of a billion bees,
there’s nothing like the Super Bowl. If you tackle it the right way, orchestrate a comprehensive game
plan, and deliver relevant and attention-worthy creative, you’ll meet or exceed your goals.
The slots for this year’s Super Bowl sold out more than two months before the big game, so the
time to start thinking about next year’s game is now. Give it some serious thought. Yes, it will cost some
major dough and put some butterflies in your stomach, but it’s really the best marketing value you’ll
find anywhere.
Fortune favors the bold, but it also favors the smart. And for marketing savvy advertisers,
there’s no smarter place to be than on the Super Bowl. It’s worth every million.
#6: The rising costs of Super Bowl ads in one chart
Glenn Davis, USATODAY 4:46 p.m. EST February 1, 2014
The Super Bowl is the, well, Super Bowl of advertising. The telecast reliably reaches more than
100 million sets of U.S. eyeballs every year, and advertisers can't pass up the chance to influence that
many people. Those huge audiences are so enticing that brands beat down the door to advertise during
the game despite the exorbitant costs. How much? Well...
That's the cost of 30 seconds of Super Bowl ad time every year since 1967, adjusted for inflation
using the BLS's CPI inflation calculator. (The year-by-year raw, unadjusted data is from here.) As you can
see, the cost has outpaced inflation by more than a factor of 10 since the first Super Bowl - a trend likely
to continue if reports of Fox getting $4 million per 30-second spot this year are accurate.
And not only are prices increasing - they're increasing at increasing rates. Sure, there are
occasional dips in the adjusted cost from year-to-year (those tend to follow recessions or astronomical
one-year increases in cost, such as from 1999-2000). But look at the overall trend. It took 18 years for an
ad to break $1 million in 2013 dollars. It took 14 more to crack the $2 million mark. After an insane oneyear jump nearly took it past the $3 million mark, it then took 10 years to get over the hump in 2009.
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If current trends hold, it will be well under 10 years from then to crack the next million-dollar
marker. In an age of media uncertainty, the Super Bowl is a guaranteed bonanza for whoever's televising
the game that year.
#7: What players get paid for winning the Super Bowl
Adam Molon | @CNBCMolon
A place in history, a blinged-up ring and a shiny trophy aren't the only spoils that Super Bowl
champions earn for winning America's biggest sporting event.
There are those bonus checks: According to the NFL office and the league's post-season media
guide, each participating member of the victorious team—the Seattle Seahawks—receives $92,000.
And while the Denver Broncos may have been devastated by their 43-8 loss to the Seahawks on
Sunday, the $46,000 check that each Bronco picks up should help ease the pain at least a bit.
The bonus is paid by the league itself, according to the NFL.
The Seahawks' Super Bowl roster listed 63 players, translating to a total championship bonus
payout of about $5.8 million. The Broncos' roster listed 64 players, adding up to approximately $2.9
million in runner-up bonuses.
Including what came with the Super Bowl blowout, each Seahawk took in about $157,000 in the
post-season, including $23,000 each for their divisional playoff win over the Saints, and $42,000 each for
their conference championship triumph over the 49ers.
That translates into a total post-season NFL payout of about $9.9 million to Seahawks players.
#8: Why Super Bowl is a distinctly American cultural event
By Roger L. Beahm Published January 31, 2014 FoxNews.com
On Sunday, an estimated 110 million people will be glued to the television for Super Bowl XLVIII.
To put this in perspective, that is roughly everyone in the top five most populous states (California,
Texas, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania) watching NFL’s most coveted game, according to the most
recent Census data.
Whether you are a fan of the Denver Broncos or Seattle Seahawks, it doesn’t matter because
the game itself has proven to be merely the backdrop for a cultural event that is distinctly American.
The Super Bowl is more than Broncos vs. Seahawks, it represents a shared experience that is
truly American. We have parties, make purchases, and get geared up to watch an ultimate American
story: a high-stakes game of winner takes all.
We have parties, make purchases, and get geared up to watch an ultimate American story: a
high-stakes game of winner takes all.
Nachos, check. Cold beverage, check.
What is truly interesting is that marketers and advertisers have successfully created the Super
Bowl as an “event” that lasts more than just three hours on Sunday evening.
The week that leads up to the Super Bowl, in some instances, is almost as big as the game itself.
There are concerts, dinners, interviews, and events that showcase NFL superstars as if they are
Hollywood royalty.
Fans who happen to be attending the game have all kinds of events available as well. Those of
us watching at home often plan to attend parties and other social gatherings.
Even more interesting is the idea that the Super Bowl might just be the only time that the American
public openly invites marketers into our living rooms.
We often turn away from marketing messaging and instead go for products that allow us to skip
commercials to get back to the programming, but for some the Super Bowl game is all about “the
commercials” and halftime entertainment.
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In fact, companies developing ads for the Super Bowl usually go above and beyond to make sure their
messages stand out.
They will spend millions on concept development, research, and production even before airing
the spots. And sometimes these ads have little to do with the product or service being marketed, but
instead rely on outlandish borrowed interest to help us associate the commercial with a particular
brand.
Getting into high-stakes Super Bowl advertising is still a big gamble. This year a 30-second spot will cost
advertisers a cool $4 million or over $133,000 per second. But with more than a third of the entire U.S.
watching, advertisers gladly pay the high out-of-pocket cost for this level of reach – and to compete for
most memorable Super Bowl ad.
These days, the most memorable Super Bowl ad doesn't necessarily debut during the game.
Companies now are reaching fans well before the actual game promoting commercials on YouTube.
As I write this, the Budweiser “Puppy Love” commercial has received more than 23 million views
on YouTube.
In fact, there’s a website that has many of the 2014 Super Bowl Commercials available for
people to view.
YouTube and other online outlets help to lengthen the shelf life of these advertisements and
give companies both pre- and post-Super Bowl bounces, thus extending the reach even further and
improving the efficiency the buy.
How and why does this work? At no other time will there be that many people en masse watching a
single television event in this country. At no other time will marketers be able to capture the willing
attention of the consumer more than at the Super Bowl.
#9: Fun Facts About the Super Bowl (Forbes.com)
Here are some interesting facts about the Super Bowl you can throw out as you are watching the big
game this Sunday.
Ratings
Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 had an average audience of 112.2 million viewers, the most watched
telecast in U.S. history. Seattle Seahawks victory over Denver Broncos by a score of 43 to 8, it was the
most lopsided Super Bowl score in 21 years. Five of the past seven Super Bowls have been decided by a
touchdown or less. (Nielsen)
The last five Super Bowls have been the five most watched telecasts in U.S. television history,
prior to that the most watched telecast was the M*A*S*H finale in February 1983 with 106 million
viewers. (Nielsen)
Despite all the tuning sources now available, the audience for the Super Bowl has increased 22.4
million viewers over the past ten years 2004-2014. (Nielsen)
Females accounted for 46.8% of the Super Bowl audience last year. The average audience for
females was a record high 52.6 million. By comparison, The Oscars last year had 43.7 million TOTAL
TOTAL viewers. This was the fourth straight year the Super Bowl had averaged over 50 million female
viewers. During the regular NFL season about one-third of the viewing audience is female. (Nielsen)
The median age of The Super Bowl viewer in 2014 was 43.7, a slight increase from the previous
year 43.5. (Nielsen)
The program lead-outs to last year’s Super Bowl on Fox Fox last year was New Girl with 26.3
million viewers and Brooklyn Nine Nine 15.1 million. The most watched Super Bowl lead-out was Friends
in 1996 on NBC, the telecast averaged 52.9 million viewers and guest starred Brooke Shields. (Nielsen)
The last TV program to average a household rating over 40 that wasn’t a Super Bowl was The
Seinfeld finale in May 1998. (Nielsen)
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23 of the 25 highest rated sporting events on television have been Super Bowls, the two lone
exceptions were Women’s Figure Skating in the 1994 Winter Olympics (short form and long form)
highlighted by Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. (Nielsen)
Super Bowl is the highest rated TV shows across all age groups, last year the rating for the big
game with teens (12-17) was 32.0 and kids (2-11) 23.7. (Nielsen)
The Super Bowl’s household rating last year was 47.1, in homes with an income of $100,000+ it
was 58.1. (Nielsen)
In a first, last year The Super Bowl was televised on a Spanish language network (Fox Deportes),
the big game averaged 561,000 viewers. (Nielsen)
Advertisers
A :30 second ad in the 2015 Super Bowl cost $4.5 million, the most expensive ad in history and a
12.5% increase from last year’s game. On average, Super Bowl ad rates have grown 10.8% annually.
(Kantar Media)
The number of advertising time has increased from 40 minutes and 15 seconds in 2005 to 49
minutes and 15 minutes in 2014. The 2013 Super Bowl had 51 minutes and 40 seconds of ad time the
highest to date. (Kantar Media)
The total spending among Super Bowl advertisers has grown from $158.4 million in 2005 to
$331.8 million in 2014. By comparison, the 7-game 2014 World Series generated $257 million in ad
volume. (Kantar Media)
In the 2014 Super Bowl there 22 paid advertisers that ran commercials of 60 seconds or longer
or 40% of all ads. In 2010 Super Bowl there was 11 advertisers that aired longer form ads that accounted
for 18% of ads. (Kantar Media)
In 2015 there will be 15 first time advertisers, the most since the dot com crazed 2000 Super
Bowl which had 19 first time advertisers. (Kantar Media)
Historically the three most popular product categories that advertise in The Super Bowl have
been 1. Automobiles 2. Motion Pictures 3. Food & Candy. (Kantar Media)
Hashtags have replace URL as the most popular call to action in Super Bowl advertising. In 2014
60% of Super Bowl ads had a hashtag and 42% had an URL code. In 2012 only 11% of advertisers had a
hashtag and 63% had a URL code. Audi was the first Super Bowl advertiser to use a hashtag. (Kantar
Media)
Super Bowl ads account for 0.11% of all TV ads that will air throughout the year. (iSpot.tv)
61% say they will share Super Bowl ads on social media before the game, and two-thirds will
likely post during the game (CrowdTap)
Last year Fox offered a pair of live streams (delivered in English and Spanish) of the Super Bowl
blowout it drew an average audience of 528,000 viewers per minute, up from 508,000 viewers per
minute in 2013. (Fox)
Last year there were 25.3 million tweets during the Super Bowl was 24.1 million in 2013. The
biggest Twitter moment came when Seattle’s Percy Harvin ran a kickoff back 87 yards to open the
second half and. That generated 381,605 tweets per minute. (Twitter)
The most shared Super Bowl ad was Volkswagen’s 2011 ad “The Force” which has as of last
month attracted 5,279,772 online shares across social media. (Unruly)
57% of Super Bowl viewers say they will use Facebook and/or Twitter during the game (Burston
Marstellar)
Half Time
Last year’s half time act featuring Bruno Mars and The Red Hot Chili Peppers was the most
watched ever averaging 115.3 million viewers (three million more than the game), surpassing Madonna
with LMFAO and M.I.A. in 2012 as the most watched half time act (114 million viewers). (Nielsen)
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The week following the Super Bowl last year Bruno Mars album sales increased by 206% and his
digital song sales were up 116%. The Red Hot Chili Peppers saw there album sales increase 220% and
digital song sales grew by 121%. (Nielsen)
This year’s half time act Katy Perry (along with Lenny Kravitz) has 64.1 million Twitter followers more
than anyone else. (Twitter)
Miscellaneous
Last year $119.4 million were wagered on the Super Bowl at casinos in the state of Nevada, it
was $98.94 million in 2013. (Statista)
Total spending by viewers for the Super Bowl will reach $14.3 billion in 2015, an increase from
$12.37 billion in 2014. 79.3% plan on buying food, 10.8% will get team apparel and 8.8% will get a new
TV. (National Retail Federation)
46.8% of people say the game itself is the most important part of the Super Bowl; 25.1% say it’s
the commercials; 16.2% say hanging out with friends and 11.9% say it’s the half time show. (National
Retail Federation)
17.6% of people plan to host a Super Bowl party, 25.9% plan to attend a party, 5.5% will watch
at a bar/restaurant and 51.1% will do none of the above. (National Retail Foundation)
Next to the Fourth of July more beer is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of
the year. $1.01 billion is spent on beer in the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl at grocery and
convenience stores. (Nielsen)
1.23 billion chicken wings will be eaten on Super Bowl Sunday, nearly four for every American.
(National Chicken Council)
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