HAS the Super Bowl gone soft?
A weak advertising market, dead dot-coms and the fear of a recession may have forced CBS to charge less money for Super Bowl ads than ABC did last year, according to Advertising Age, the advertising industry’s bible.
The commercials, which are sometimes given more attention than the game itself, are typically the most watched television ads of the whole year. But this time, the price for a 30-second ad during the game is about the same or – at best – only slightly greater than last year’s average $2.1 million, according to some reports.
“The pricing is flat this year,” a knowledgeable ad agency exec told Advertising Age. “There are some people in there paying over $2 million [for a 30-second spot].
“But there are a fair few that are under $2 million. The last few spots left will have to be for under $2 million because they are all in the fourth quarter,” the source said.
The picture looks dismal only when compared to 1999 – when rates jumped 23 percent -and last year – when the price of a spot shot up 38 percent.
CBS strongly disputes the figures and claims that it stands to reap at least $150 million in Super Bowl ad sales this year – about 12 percent more than ABC did last year.
“CBS officials are very confident that the network will achieve the highest per-unit price and the highest total in Super Bowl history,” a source close to the company said.
A CBS spokesman declined to be specific about the numbers.
Overall, the network may pull off the most profitable night in TV history – spots that will air after the game ends during the debut of “Survivor: Australian Outback” are selling like hotcakes.
Still, less than two weeks before the big football game, CBS hasn’t sold about 10 percent of its ad time – a big blow to Madison Avenue’s confidence. Meanwhile, industry sources say CBS is likely to announce it has sold out on ad space later this week.
So why the dispute?
Ad experts say due to talk of a potential recession and the expectation that advertisers will buy less commercial air time this year, the usual assortment of deep-pocketed Super Bowl sponsors did not scramble for the precious ad time as usual.
The end result is that advertisers appear to have more room than usual to bargain. Also, the thinning of the dot-com herd in 2000 will have a major impact on Super Bowl XXXV.
While 17 dot-coms bought time during last year’s game, only three will advertise this year. Most of the others have gone out of business.
Ironically, two of this years’ dot-com ads are from job-search sites, Monster.com and HotJobs.com.
BOWL BLOWOUTS
Year
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000 (5)
Price (1)
$42,000
$54,000
$67,500
$78,200
$72,000
$86,000
$103,500
$107,000
$110,000
$125,000
$162,000
$185,000
$222,000
$275,000
$324,000
$345,000
$400,000
$450,000
$500,000
$550,000
$575,000
$600,000
$675,000
$700,000
$800,000
$800,000
$850,000
$900,000
$1,000,000
$1,100,000
$1,200,000
$1,300,000
$1,600,000
$2,100,00
Network
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
NBC
CBS
ABC
NBC
CBS
ABC
NBC
CBS
ABC
CBS
NBC
NBC
ABC
NBC
FOX
NBC
FOX
ABC
. . . Rating
23.0
17.8
36.8
36.0
39.4
39.9
44.2
42.7
41.6
42.4
42.3
44.4
47.2
47.1
46.3
44.4
49.1
48.6
46.4
46.4
48.3
45.8
41.9
43.5
39.0
41.9
40.3
45.1
45.5
41.3
46.0
43.3
44.5
40.2
43.3
Viewers (4)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
44,270,000
45,960,000
56,640,000
53,320,000
51,700,000
56,050,000
57,710,000
62,060,000
78,940,000
74,740,000
76,240,000
68,290,000
85,230,000
81,770,000
77,620,000
85,530,000
92,570,000
87,190,000
80,140,000
81,590,000
73,852,000
79,510,000
79,590,000
90,990,000
90,000,000
83,420,000
94,080,000
87,870,000
90,000,000
83,720,000
88,465,000
(1) Average price for :30 commercial
can drop . . . 2. Adjusted for inflation to 2000 dollars
can drop . . . .3. Age 2+
4. Percentage of U.S. households
5. Revised
Chart courtesy of Nielsen Media Research; Advertising Age research