Everything you need to know about the Super Bowl commercials: how much do the ... - Telegraph.co.uk
The adverts at the Super Bowl have become a large talking point around the event.
They are massively expensive to put on and are often clever, with no cost spared and some celebrity appearances.
But when did it all start, and which adverts have proven the most successful?
What can we expect this year?
It’s the last year of the Doritos ‘Crash The Super Bowl’ contest, where film makers are invited to make adverts for them.
Here are the finalists – we will see one of them this year:
And we’re also going to get a look at the new Toyota Prius as they ready their vehicle for a Super Bowl advertorial outing.
We’re sure to see more sneak peaks of upcoming adverts as time goes by and we get nearer to the event.
When did the Super Bowl adverts become a phenomenon?
Super Bowl adverts rose to massive mainstream popularity and became talking points in the 1970s.
In 1973, lotion brand Noxzema aired a commercial starring Farrah Fawcett and quarterback Joe Namat.
It showed Namat being ‘creamed’ with lotion by Fawcett, ‘creamed’ meaning beaten at football.
Another popular commercial was in 1976, when Xerox aired a Super Bowl advertisement called ‘Monks’, starring Jack Eagle as a monk named Brother Dominic. In the advert, he discoved he could create copies of a manuscript using a new Xerox photocopier.
The Master Lock advert tradition also started in the 1970s, with their famous ‘Shot Lock’ advert airing in 1974.
This gun-themed advert then became a tradition over the next few years of the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl ad spot reportedly increased their revenue from $35 million per year to $200 million per year from 1973-1994 and ended up costing nearly all of their yearly advertising budget.
The 10 most shared Super Bowl adverts
10. Volkswagen: “The Bark Side” (2012, 0.9 million shares)
9. Paramount: “Fast and Furious 7” trailer (2015, 1.31 million shares)
8. Chevrolet: “Needing/Getting” (2012, 1.34 million shares)
7. Fast & Furious 6: “Big Game Spot” (2013, 1.5 million shares)
6. Ram Trucks: “Farmer” (2013, 1.9 million shares)
5. Budweiser: “Puppy Love” (2014, 2 million shares)
4. Budweiser: “Lost Dog” (2015, 2.5 million shares)
3. Budweiser: “Brotherhood” (2013, 2.9 million shares)
2. Budweiser: “9/11 Commercial” (2012, 3.5 million shares)
1. Volkswagen: “The Force” (2012, 5.3 million shares)
Last year, Kim Kardashian’s Super Bowl advert made headlines
Kim Kardashian, perhaps the most famous reality TV star on the planet, poked fun at her celebrity in an advert for T-Mobile, which screened during the Super Bowl last year.
“Hi I’m Kim, each month, millions of gigs of data are taken back by wireless companies – tragic,” she deadpans.
“Data you paid for that could be used to see my make-up, my backhand, my outfits, my vacations and … my outfits, sadly all lost” she continues, while striking a series of ridiculous poses.
“Please, help save the data,” she concludes, as a lilting piano melody plays in the background.
How much do Super Bowl adverts cost to produce and play on air?
Companies spend $4m on a 30-second ad spot and easily another $1m on creating the ad.
We reported in 2012 that the average price of Super Bowl ads rose more than 50 per cent in the last 10 years, defying economic downturns and secular industry issues.
The advert slots always sell out.
It’s been said by industry leaders that the immense cost is worth it.
Former head of ad agency Grey London and now chief strategist at FCB Inferno, Simon White, explains that a Super Bowl advert offers value for money, given a potential audience of more than 100 million.
He also suggests that viewers are more willing to sit through commercials than at any other time during the year.
It also offers brands the chance to signal extra online content, Mr White says.
TV airtime for a 30-second advert cost $4.5m (£3m) in 2015, or $150,000 per second. According to CNBC, that much money “will buy 10 days of premium advertising on Twitter, four days on Facebook, five “masthead” ads on YouTube, and six-days worth of Snapchat’s high-priced disappearing ads,” reaching from 50m to 100m users.
Source: Google News Super Bowl Commercials