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State of the Screens

Super Bowl 2022 Advertising: By the Numbers

By February 17, 2022No Comments

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Big news: NBC sold its last Super Bowl spot ten days before the game.  The most expensive slot reportedly sold for $7.0M.

Estimated cost per 30s spot by year (YoY growth) according to Kantar:
1) 2012 – $3.5M (↑ 13%)
2) 2013 – $4.0M (↑ 14%)
3) 2014 – $4.2M (↑ 5%)
4) 2015 – $4.4M (↑ 5%)
5) 2016 – $4.8M (↑ 9%)
6) 2017 – $5.1M (↑ 5%)
7) 2018- $4.4M (↓ 13%)
8) 2019 – $4.5M (↑ 3%)
9) 2020 – $5.3M (↑ 16%)
10) 2021 – $5.5M (↑ 5%)
11) 2022P – ≈ $6.5M (↑ 18%)

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Big question: Why are marketers willing to pay so much for Super Bowl ads?

Quote from Jeff Shell – CEO @ NBCUniversal:
“Reach is increasingly difficult to find in the market, and if you have reach, then you have a commodity that’s very valuable.”

Super Bowl vs. top primetime show (% difference) by total viewers for 2020-21 according to Variety:
1) Super Bowl 2021 (CBS) – 98.0M
2) NCIS (CBS) – 12.7M

Why this matters: Last year, the Super Bowl delivered 7X the audience for the most-viewed (non-sports) primetime show.  In 2009 that ratio was 2X.  The Super Bowl is down ≈ 15% from its high (115.8M in 2015), but everything on linear (outside of news and sports) has fallen off of a cliff (↓ 40%+ since 2015).

Super Bowl in-game ad spend by year (YoY growth) according to Kantar Media:
1) 
2015 (NBC) – $322M
2) 
2016 (CBS) – $376M (↑ 17%)
3) 2017 (FOX) – $430M (↑ 14%)
4) 2018 (NBC) – $341M (↓ 21%)
5) 2019 (CBS) – $339M (↓ 1%)
6) 2020 (FOX) – $449M (↑ 33%)
7) 2021 (CBS) – $435M ( 3%)

Minutes of ads per Super Bowl (YoY growth) according to Kantar Media:
1) 2013 – 51:40
2) 2014 – 47:15 ( 9%)
3) 2015 – 48:05 (↑ 2%)
4) 2016 – 49:30 (↑ 3%)
5) 2017 – 51:30 (↑ 4%)
6) 2018 – 51:20 ( 0%)
7) 2019 – 49:31 ( 4%)
8) 2020 – 51:15 (↑ 4%)
9) 2021 – 42:00 ( 18%)

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.