It's that time of year again--Super Sunday, where an audience of millions will feast on football, hot wings, and a bevy of well-placed one-liners nicely packaged into 30-second spots. And the price advertisers will pay for the privilege of running a one-half minute message to the Fox TV audience? Up to $3 million. That's up from the reported price tag of up to $2.6 million for last year's Super Bowl and up to $2.5 million in 2006. And those figures obviously don't include any of the creative, talent, or other production costs that go into what can be some very elaborate backdrops for displaying one's message.
As one example, be sure to catch the Audi ad that pitches for its R8 sports car. The product is shown in front of a real Beverly Hills home that is currently on the market for $200 million (I'm guessing that was offered for free in exchange for helping sell the house?). However, Audi's spot also features movie icon Alex Rocco from the academy-award winning The Godfather (1972). Audi reportedly paid Paramount somewhere between $500,000 and $1.5 million just for the licensing rights to use Godfather material for the campaign.
So, is Audi getting a good bang for their buck, er euro? Actually, they could be. If we use last year's audience numbers as an estimate, we would expect 93.2 million viewers to tune in for the show. So, even if we assume Audi paid on the high end for its spot at $3 million, leaving out production, licensing, etc. costs for the moment, that translates to only a little over 3 cents per viewer.
Doesn't sound quite as bad anymore, does it! So, it's a good deal, right? Not just yet. I'll be back later next week with some other factors we need to work into our equation before we make our purchase. By the way, if you sign up to become a registered member of Audi of America's website, you get the opportunity to see their Super Bowl ad before everyone else...earlier on Sunday morning.