It's Only a Super Game

Dec 1998

Do Americans care who’s playing? We’re more interested in who’s paying, how much, for what.

Pull Up a Chair

Nearly 44 million U.S. households tuned in to last year’s (1997) Super Bowl on NBC between the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos. The highest- rated game-really, the highest percentage of TV sets tuned into one game-was Super Bowl XVI (1982) between San Francisco and Cincinnati, on CBS. (Source: Nielsen Media Research)

Ads Add Up

A one-minute ad on the first three Super Bowls cost $85,000. Following the New York Jets upset of the then-Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, the price jumped to $200,000 per minute. Fox Network, which carries this year’s game, is charging well over $1 million for a 30-second spot. (Source: National Football League)

You’re Invited

Fans with higher household incomes are more likely to watch the Super Bowl away from home than those with lower incomes. Americans 55 and up are nearly twice as likely to watch the game at home, compared to younger fans. (Source: Simmons Market Research Bureau) Avocado’s Second Biggest Day

Viewers consume 13 million pounds of guacamole during the Super Bowl, the second-biggest day for the produce. The Numero Uno: Cinco de Mayo. (Source: The California Avocado Commission) Stag Party

Nearly 80 percent of Super Bowl XXX ticket holders were male, with the median age of 41. Attendees stay in the host city for 3.3 nights and spend $306 per day. (Source: National Football League)

Field Goal for the Locals

The Big Game has a sizable economic impact on the host city. Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta pumped $166 million into the state’s economy. (Source: University of Georgia study)

Big Bullies

From 1967 to 1997, a victory by the team from the National Football Conference usually meant a bull market. Only twice in 30 years-in 1978 and 1990-did a bear market follow an NFC win. (Source: National Football League)

CPM on the 50-yard Line

Cost per thousand, viewing households, for a 30-second commercial 1998 Super Bowl: $29.81

Network prime-time average: $14.95

(Source: Bruzzone Research Company; “TV Dimensions”) Which Commercial Was That, Again?

According to a Bruzzone Research Company survey (BRC), 20 of the 46 commercials aired during the 1997 Super Bowl “reached and affected” more people, per dollar invested in air time, than the average prime-time network commercial. Two to four weeks after the game, respondents recognized the commercial, remembered who it was for, and liked it. (Source: Bruzzone Research Company)

Dancing Bears Do the Trick

Pepsi was the largest advertiser during the 1992-1997 Super Bowls, with 29 ads: 28 percent ran during the first quarter; 2 percent in the fourth. Out of 81 other Super Bowl advertisers during this period, Pepsi also had the highest average on “reach and affect”-BRC survey respondents recognized the ad and the advertiser weeks later. (Source: Bruzzone Research Company)