There's still some time before we find out which teams will be on the field at MetLife Stadium for Super Bowl XLVIII. But we're now one step closer to having the answer to the all-important question of what will be playing when those teams are off the field.
Fox announced this week that it has sold out of all its commercial inventory for the Feb. 2 game. While the price of the commercials is not known, estimates put the average at $4 million per 30-second spot with a high of around $4.5 million. If that's the case, $4.5 million would be a record for a Super Bowl spot.
"It's the worst-kept secret," said Neil Mulcahy, executive vice president of Fox Sports. "The demand has been incredible. Having the game in the New York market this year meant a lot to people wanting to be there."
A dozen major advertisers, including Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch and Hyundai, have announced that they have purchased one or more of the 65 or so slots. General Motors, which surprisingly skipped out on last year's game, will have a commercial. With last year's two-minute long Dodge Ram "Farmer" spot proving effective, several auto companies are expected to contribute longform commercials again.
“I think the autos totally have it figured out," Mulcahy said. "They can measure the immediate impact they can get from their sales figures…and the return on investment is three times what they pay [for airtime].”
New advertisers include Intuit, Jaguar and Nestlé's Butterfinger.
Overall there are fewer movie commercials, perhaps because there are fewer major releases coming out in the spring.
Fox announced that it has sold out a month earlier than CBS did last year, so clearly finding advertisers wasn't a problem. But some companies, like Subway, may have been reluctant to shell out millions for a spot when it is advertising in the Winter Olympics, which begin on Feb. 7. Tony Pace, chief marketing officer at Subway, told USA Today that the Olympics presents a unique opportunity for "shared family viewing." Pace also noted the pricing for this year's Super Bowl was "very, very aggressive."
Here's a partial list of advertisers for February's big game:
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Dannon
Doritos
General Motors (Chevrolet)
GoDaddy
Hyundai
Intuit
Jaguar
Mars
Nestlé (Butterfinger)
Soda Stream
Wonderful Pistachios
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