The Super Bowl gives advertisers the ‘instant awareness’ they want to sell their product

On Sunday night, millions of people will take part in one of America’s greatest pastimes: watching Super Bowl commercials.

Although Super Bowl viewership is down about 1 million viewers over the last decade, last year’s game had an audience of 101 million, nearly 20 times that of the the most-watched new primetime program in the fall 2022 TV season, according to Nielsen. Advertisers know that football’s biggest night provides one of the largest audiences for their brands and products.

“It’s very challenging today to get concentrated eyeballs in one place, and the Super Bowl does that,” Marc Brownstein, CEO of the Philadelphia-based marketing firm Brownstein Group, said. “There used to be large stages like the Oscars and the Golden Globes and other events like that. But there’s no event like the Super Bowl that has a national and global audience.”

About 76% of likely Super Bowl viewers in the U.S. say they’re excited for the ads, according to a survey conducted by Harris Poll and Marketing Brew. That excitement creates a buzz for advertisers looking to grab attention.

“It’s one of the only moments left where a lot of people are watching the same ads at the same time. And one of the only moments, period, where people are intentionally paying attention to — and talking about — ads,” Liz Cole, Executive Director, U.S. head of social at global marketing agency VMLY&R.

This year, companies are spending about $7 million for a 30-second ad spot, which may not seem like a long time, but “you get instant awareness, which is why everyone’s trying to use their 30 seconds or 60 seconds in ways that they’re going to break through and and be memorable,” Brownstein said.

To stand out in that short amount of time, he said brands need to have a big idea — and that doesn’t always mean a celebrity endorsement.

“Too many advertisers just have a knee-jerk reaction to go to the celebrity, to go to the animal,” he said. “They should just be relying on what makes the product or service different and come up with a big idea around that.”

Relying on celebrity cameos can sometimes backfire, for both the advertiser and the famous face. Last year, crypto exchange FTX enlisted the help of Larry David for its Super Bowl ad. After FTX’s sudden downfall in late 2022, David, along with other celebrities who endorsed the exchange, were named as defendants in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors who “collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages” from the crash, Deadline reported.

» READ MORE: Explaining the FTX crash and the Sixers’ ties to the crypto industry in less than 4 minutes

Humor or heartfelt stories in ads might connect with the audience, but viewers may forget what brand or product the ad was for.

Paralympic athletes and brothers Robin and Brian McKeever were featured in a Toyota ad last year, telling the story of their journey to the Winter Games. As Wharton marketing professor Patti Williams said on Wharton Business Daily, “I don’t really get how it relates back to Toyota. It’s a beautiful ad; it’s a beautiful story. What does it do for Toyota, and what is it telling me that Toyota can do for me? I’m not really sure I get that sense.”

Over the past several years, brands began teasing Super Bowl ads — or releasing them early — a byproduct of the social media age.

“Prereleasing a Super Bowl spot usually does two things: It boosts overall reach, and it can lengthen the amount of time people are talking about the brand,” Cole from VMLY&R said. “Those can be either advantages or disadvantages when it comes to meaningful impact – you’re trading depth for breadth, basically. It gets you a longer duration of attention, but maybe less intensity.”

In recent years, roundups of Super Bowl ads began appearing the week of the game, and speculation around brands that haven’t prereleased their 30- or 60-second spots can begin to circle. M&Ms recently discontinued the use of its spokescandies in favor of celebrity brand ambassador, Maya Rudolph. After some controversy surrounding the spokescandies’ departure, the brand confirmed they’d reappear on Sunday, after releasing an ad featuring Rudolph.

When it comes to resonating with an audience outside of the game’s live viewership, Brownstein said, “advertisers have to try harder. If you come up with something really powerful whether it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think. If it moves you in some way, then you’re going to get it shared.”