What Sponsors are Paying for Super Bowl Ads

While Fox won’t say what it charged for the broadcast ad space, top media buyers estimate that some 30-second slots sold upwards of $4 million. That’s $200,000 more than the average $3.8 million per slot that CBS took in for its 2013 broadcast.

In this still-shaky economy, the early sell-out signals that advertisers not only like the New York market, but are still more than willing to invest big-time in an event that guarantees a mass audience — particularly an event that is so multimedia friendly.

“The Super Bowl is a unique TV event,” says Jon Swallen, chief media research officer at Kantar Media, which monitors media ad placements. “With advertisers now routinely building integrated marketing campaigns around the Super Bowl spots, locking down commercial time early fits in with the longer lead times for planning these complex campaigns.”

About a dozen major advertisers already have announced plans to return to the game, including Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and Hyundai. General Motors, which was not in the 2013 contest but has been in past Super Bowls, has said it’s returning to the 2014 game. Among the new advertisers are Intuit and Nestlé’s Butterfinger, which will promote a new peanut butter cup-stuffed with Butterfinger.

Once again, auto advertisers will air long-form commercials, including a pair of two-minute commercials. It’s unknown who will air the two-minute spots, but Chrysler is expected to air at least one of them.
There will be fewer major motion picture advertisers in this Super Bowl, so that’s the only category where there’s anything less.” He says he expects fewer major film releases are due in the spring.  But the Super Bowl may have faced some ad competition from the Winter Olympic Games, which begin just days after the Super Bowl. Subway, for example, which had two commercials in the most recent Super Bowl, says it’s opting for the Olympics this go-round.

“The Super Bowl pricing this year was very, very aggressive, says the officials at Subway.  The pricing has gone crazy.” Also, Subway prefers the Olympics because “shared family viewing doesn’t happen much.”  But in reality the Olympics presented no competition and didn’t impede the sales of Subways sandwiches.
Announced Super Bowl Advertisers for 2014: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dannon, Doritos, General Motors (Chevrolet), GoDaddy, Hyundai, Intuit,  Jaguar,  Mars, Nestlé Butterfinger,  Soda Stream, Wonderful Pistachios, and H & M.  
Scarlett Johansson is getting a Super Bowl ad on behalf of SodaStream home carbination machines. Jaguar wants you very much to keep an eye out for Ben Kingsley and two more “British Villains.” Stephen Colbert will make his Super Bowl debut for Wonderful Pistachios. And David Beckham will hawk H&M in the Super Bowl’s first shoppable ad.

A web design company called Squarespace has entered the contest. Sodastream will again take on Big Soda. Audi, Axe, Chobani and TurboTax are in; E-Trade is out for the first time in years.
Chobani, whose minute-long ad will depict a nature-loving bear in a supermarket, won’t be the only Greek yogurt brand in the big game. Dannon’s Oikos is returning to the Super Bowl, after sitting out 2013, with plans to reunite the men of “Full House:” John Stamos, Bob Saget and Dave Coulie.

But some brands remain unconfirmed, and this is a living chart: We’ll update it every time we get new details on a particular marketer’s plans or an announcement of a new entrant to the game’s ad roster. (Check out our Who’s Buying What chart for last year’s Super Bowl to see how the 2013 rundown finished up.) Changes will come frequently, so bookmark this page and keep an eye on this space.

Super Bowl XLVIII will air Feb. 2 on Fox from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Fox Sports averaged around $4 million for 30 seconds worth of ad time during the game, media buyers said.