Advertisers are shaking up their Super Bowl strategies as uncertainty shakes the economy

  • This year’s Super Bowl will see massive changes in the types of advertisers.
  • Buying a Super Bowl can be a big risk because it’s a big investment months before the game.
  • According to one advertising director, CBS could have trouble selling next year’s Super Bowl due to the economic situation.

Advertisers still considering buying Super Bowl LVII ads will have to wait until next year. Fox, which will be broadcasting the Philadelphia Eagles-Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday, just announced that all seats are sold out.

But this year, the composition of Big Game advertisers will undergo major changes, largely due to the unstable economic situation.

“Players have changed from what we’ve been used to in the past 50 years,” said Denise Ocasio, head of US investment at media agency WPP Mindshare.

Each year brings a new crop of advertisers – last year’s Super Bowl was dominated by EV and cryptocurrency advertisers who pulled out this year due to the recent cryptocurrency crash and the bankruptcy of FTX.

But this year is astonishing because some of the longest running advertising mainstays have ceased or drastically reduced their presence.

Automakers including BMW, Nissan, Polestar and Toyota have confirmed they are out of business amid falling U.S. car sales.

“Each year, we evaluate this promotional opportunity to support upcoming product launches or key Toyota moments. This year’s timing does not match for our brand,” Toyota said in a statement.

And brewing giant Anheuser-Busch will still advertise for brands like Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, but it ended its 33-year agreement with the NFL to be the exclusive Super Bowl alcohol advertiser, allowing rivals like Rémy Martin , Molson Coors and Diageo, leave. up. Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes said during the company’s January earnings report that its Crown Royal brand will launch Super Bowl ads for the first time this year.

Anheuser-Busch’s actions show that companies are finding it increasingly difficult to justify the exorbitant cost of showing Super Bowl ads. AB InBev chief executive Daniel Blake told USA Today the company pulled out of the NFL deal in part because the rise in digital activations and regional advertising from other alcohol brands has undermined its Super Bowl exclusivity.

The problem with investing in the Super Bowl during times of economic turmoil is that it is an all-or-nothing decision to be made as early as possible.

“To take advantage of a Super Bowl spot, you need to know you’re going to take it, put in a lot of effort, and start very early,” said Mark DiMassimo, founder of the DiGo agency.

The time frame for buying ads is also set months in advance of a game, making it difficult for advertisers to predict what the economy will look like once a game goes live in February. In addition to in-game advertising, which has averaged between $6 million and $7 million this year, the actual production of the ad and the digital activations around it are worth an additional million. Bookings are typically made in May, said one advertising executive who bought many Super Bowl ads for clients, including this year. Filming for these commercials usually takes place in December and early January, said a second agency executive who has worked on Super Bowl campaigns in the past but not this year.

A lot can change in these six months. Google, for example, has scheduled a Super Bowl video to air when the news that it has laid off 12,000 employees is still fresh.

“Over the past couple of years, we have realized that it is quite difficult to look into the future,” said this second executive. “You allocate money to media and then to production, and before Christmas and in the fall everyone saw the winds of change coming.”

Advertisers will take less risk with their creative this year

Margaret Johnson, Chief Creative Officer and Partner of Goodby Silverstein & Partner, did Super Bowl ads for Doritos, Pepsi and regional ads for Sam Adams. She said advertisers this year are building on time-honored messages that have worked in the past.

For example, Pringles ads feature people getting their hands stuck in cans of chips, a message that Pringles has long used to promote its packaging.

“There is no big risk – people are returning to the territories they were in before,” she said. “It’s something they’ve done before and they’ve been successful, so it’s a sure bet.”

Andrea Zaretsky, director of marketing at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, which owns E-Trade, said the brand is launching its nineteenth Super Bowl ad this year, which will feature E-Trade’s baby for the tenth time. The ad shows how to save money on a wedding — an industry she said E-Trade experienced a boom in 2022 after weddings were largely canceled during the pandemic.

“We felt this was the right moment to address this topic,” she said.

But there could be an even greater risk for brands to forfeit the unique branding opportunity that the Super Bowl represents, even in a bad economy. Mindshare’s Ocasio noted that nothing else can provide the coverage that the Super Bowl offers, which is essential when viewing is so fragmented.

“I don’t think the data suggests anyone would be cutting costs at this stage: that would be a strategic disadvantage,” said Jason DeLand, founding partner at Anomaly, an advertising agency that produces this year’s Super Bowl ads for Diageo Crown Royal. , Bud Light and Dunkin.

But a source at one ad agency suggested there could be a slowdown when it comes time to buy ads for next year’s Super Bowl, which will air on CBS. Super Bowl ad space sold quickly for both Fox this year and NBC last year.

However, while Fox sold 95% of its inventory by the start of the NFL season in September, it didn’t sell out until January 23, according to Mark Evans, head of advertising sales for Fox Sports. The crash occurred because several business categories such as crypto were forced to back out of their purchases, leaving Fox with more inventory to sell.

“As the economic climate shifted a little in October, the enthusiasm to spend $7 million for 30 seconds has faded a bit,” Evans said.

A source at the advertising agency believes that this May, advertisers may delay their decision to buy from CBS.

“I think it will be different for them,” the man said. “It will be difficult because of the economy.”

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