CBS Finally Sold Out of Super Bowl Spots for Creative Advertising

February 3, 2013 – Super Bowl XLVII - the day every American, football fan or not, will gather around the television and watch the biggest game of the year. The super bowl is known for two things: 1) a great game of football that will be forever documented; 2) commercials.

Commercials during the Super Bowl have become just as important as the game itself. It’s the one time people actually get excited about commercials instead of pressing the mute button or changing the channel. It’s expected that the commercials will exemplify creative advertising at its best. And there’s one network that’s guaranteed to bring it all to you – CBS.

CBS has prepared endlessly for the big day – planning, budgeting and managing the airing time. Although restricted by the National Football League (NFL) on airtime, CBS has already sold out of Super Bowl advertising spots.

The one question everyone wants to know is this: how much do these ads really cost? Ad Age states that the costs have increased slightly from the casual $3.5 million to an average of $3.7 to $3.8 million. Some spots will even air for $4 million.

CBS had been holding on selling its advertising spots in the hopes of earning top dollar, which certainly has worked out in its favor as the average cost for a 30-second spot on prime time television increased by $200,000.

The Super Bowl and its advertisements are a part of American culture that does not appear to be fading. As the marketing revolution continues to stray from traditional media, this is the one time of the year when television advertising remains number one.

Advertising and marketing is constantly changing, especially with the rapid growth of social media. Print ads, TV ads and outdoor ads are all moving online. But the Super Bowl stays true to traditional media and serves as an opportunity for creative advertising on TV to make a come back – to show humor and cleverness, but ultimately entertain.

The Super Bowl even serves as a fiscal year for some brands. It’s the time to start over, introduce something new, then play with that strategy and campaign until the next Super Bowl.

Take Snickers and E-Trade for example. Both brands launched their famously successful commercials and did spin offs for the remaining months of the year. Snickers introduced the, “You’re not you when you’re hungry. Eat a Snickers.” campaign with Betty White that proved to be a huge success.

 

E-Trade introduced the babies two years ago and has expanded on that ever since. The first E-Trade commercial has over 1.5 million views on YouTube. E-Trade has capitalized on the brand awareness the Super Bowl brought the company.

And of course, we cannot forget the most compelling, and arguably the best advertisement of all time, Apple fighting to break free of the IBM corporate world of the 1980’s. It was captivating, cutting-edge and didn’t talk about the product, but it introduced Apple and everything that it represented.

As we all gather around the television to watch the game and the ads on CBS, we will know how much they cost, the kind of historical impact ads have had in the past, what will be introduced as the new campaigns for the new year, and most importantly, we will be as equally entertained as we are watching the game.

One thing seems for sure, no matter how much advertising strategies stray away form traditional media the other 11 months of the year, the Super Bowl commercials are here to stay.

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Jocelyn Smith, Founder & CEO of infinitee, is the author of this article. Learn more about her here.