Super Bowl I took place in 1967, although at the time it was called the “NFL-AFL World Championship Game.” The temporary unofficial name of “Super Bowl” was contrived when Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt observed his daughter playing with her super ball. After some time with the original name, fans and media took to the shorter unofficial name over the wordy original name, and in 1969 the name was officially changed to “Super Bowl.”
As a marketer, however, what is more interesting to me is the other half of the Super Bowl spectacle: the advertisements. It is arguably the one time of year when advertisements take center stage and are given almost as much attention as the regular television program. The reason this came about is because the Super Bowl has grown in viewership to become the most watched program of the year, and high ratings attract competition among advertisers. This demand has caused the price for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl to rise dramatically, and thus pushed advertisers investing in spots to put special amounts of innovation and creativity into these expensive ads.
To see this transformation in action, we turn directly to the numbers. When looking at television ratings, the “rating” indicates the % of all television-equipped US households who tuned in to the program, while the “share” indicates the % of those viewing the program out of those who were watching television at the time. Super Bowl I in 1967 was shown on two networks with ratings of 22 and 18, shares of 43 and 36, and viewership of 26 million and 24 million. Back then, a 30-second spot cost about US $40,000 (adjusted for inflation would be about US $245,000). In 2009, Super Bowl XLIII grabbed a 42 rating and 62 share with almost 99 million viewers. A 30-second spot in 2009 cost US $3,000,000.
One of the first really memorable commercials aired during the Super Bowl was a Noxzema ad shown in 1973 featuring Farrah Fawcett applying shaving cream to Joe Namath's face. Both were popular celebrities of the time, and audiences of the 1970s showed little issue with sexual innuendo in advertisement.
However, the bar was truly set in 1984 with the engaging Apple ad directed by Ridley Scott introducing the Macintosh to the world and inspired by the George Orwell novel “1984.”
In 2010, prices for Super Bowl ads will unusually dip slightly to between US $2.5M and US $2.8M due to the dip in the global economy, and some big players in Super Bowl advertising such as PepsiCo and General Motors will be absent, potentially making way for creative newcomers to enter the scene. I am personally looking forward to this event, and plan on reviewing the advertising in full in a special Super Bowl entry of this blog.
References
http://www.superbowlhistory.net/superbowl/index.php
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/18/historical-super-bowl-tv-ratings/11044
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-02-01/entertainment/17140446_1_super-bowl-bud-bowls-super-ads
http://advertising-influence.suite101.com/article.cfm/superbowl_advertising
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/super-bowl-ad-prices-fall-but-still-cost-millions/article1426695/
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