Three million reasons advertisers hope you watch the Super Bowl

Got three million dollars to dish out for a 30-second ad? That was the question companies had to ask themselves this year when deciding whether or not to place a commercial during the big game. As the Boston Herald reports, even amidst this economic recession, the cost of a Super Bowl ad is up 11 percent from last year. In fact, each ad costs about $100,000 a second.

Unfortunately, the weak economy is forcing some perennial advertisers to be absent this year. As Newsweek reports, although GM will have a pre-game and a post-game presence, it won’t run any ads during the game.

Yet, many advertisers believe the hefty price tag of a Super Bowl ad is more than worth the price. The Super Bowl is perhaps the only television event all year in which the audience carefully pays attention to the commercials. Plus, these commercials enjoy a long shelf life. The top-ranked commercials benefit from significant media exposure the following day. More importantly, Super Bowl commercials garner a huge audience on the Internet thanks to the viral effects of online video.

The Internet impact of Super Bowl ads goes much deeper than the replay of commercials. As the Boston Herald reports: “Most – if not all – of this year’s advertisements will have a corresponding online presence, designed to generate pre-game buzz, and post-game remembrances.” The Wall Street Journal blog Digits features more analysis on this topic.

Even with all the stated benefits of running a Super Bowl ad, it remains a risky venture to invest so much money to have a spot in the big game. USA Today reports a scary fact for advertisers. Supposedly, “there’s been a direct relationship between people’s confidence in the economy and the attention they pay to Super Bowl ads.” Not a good sign.

There’s also the chance that this year’s ratings won’t meet last year’s record-setting numbers. In some ways, it’s understandable that pundits predict a dip in viewership. After all, it will be tough to match the drama of last year’s game in which the Patriots attempted to complete a perfect season.

Yet, criticism of the so-called lack of big markets and big-name players in this year’s game seems misguided. Pittsburgh is one of the most storied franchises in the history of the NFL. A win in the Super Bowl, and the Steelers will be the only franchise to have six Super Bowl titles. Back in August, ESPN ranked the Steelers as having the best fans in football. The black-and-gold nation is notorious for filling stadiums across the NFL and supporting the Steelers wherever they go. Trust me, every last one of those fans will be watching on Sunday. Interestingly, that same analysis by ESPN listed the Cardinals as having the worst fans in the NFL. Something tells me those Arizona fans are a bit more supportive of their team than they were several months ago.

Advertisers conduct a lot of research when planning their commercials. It would be interesting to see how their approaches might change if they knew which teams would be playing prior to producing their spots. Coke got lucky by choosing to feature Steelers safety Troy Polamalu in an updated version of the classic Mean Joe Greene ad.

Smart advertisers should also realize that men aren’t necessarily the only target audience for these Super Bowl ads anymore. According to Nielsen, 37.7 million adult women watched the game last year, but men seemed to like the commercials more than women.

Even with the current economic conditions and all of the other relevant factors, these ads will enjoy a high level of viewership and some will strike gold while others will fizzle. Inevitably, what’s known as vampire creativity will destroy several ads. A commercial will be so novel or funny that everyone will remember the ad but not what it’s for.

If nothing else, each advertiser hopes that people will at least remember its name come Monday morning.

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