Super Bowl attracted the second-highest in-game ad expenditure in history, hitting $414 million during the 49 minutes, 35 second of commercial running time, according to new research
Philadelphia Eagles fans are not the only ones elated with the 2018 Super Bowl. Sunday’s big event pulled in $414 million in advertising sales for NBC, the second-biggest take in the history. Final ratings, meanwhile, show a Nielsen household 33.4 rating among adults 18-49, down 10% from last year’s 37.1.
Kantar Media’s preliminary estimate of in-game ad spending for the game—in which the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33—is second to last year’s game, which totalled $419 million. Total non-program time—which comprises paid advertising, NFL promos/PSAs and NBC program promos—totalled 49 minutes/35 seconds, which is the third-highest on record, albeit down from 51:30 a year ago. This year’s nonprogram time accounted for 22% of the total time of broadcast, Kantar reports.
There were seven minutes/25 seconds of network TV program promos, versus 7:30 a year ago, and two minutes of NFL promos/PSAs, versus 2:20 a year ago.
Anheuser-Busch InBev and Fiat Chrysler Automotive were the top advertisers in the game, with four minutes each of advertising time. Toyota Motor was at three minutes, while Amazon was at two minutes/30 seconds. There were a total of 62 in-game spots aired by 45 different advertisers from 37 unique parent company owners.
Regarding viewership, according to preliminary results from Nielsen, the telecast of Super Bowl LII on NBC, which ran from 6:31 pm to 10:25 pm, drew an average TV audience of about 103.4 million viewers and was viewed in an average of 51.5 million homes.
Westwood One, which holds radio rights for the Super Bowl, estimates that 25.5 million listeners tune in to the Super Bowl on the airwaves, according to data provided by GfK Custom Research. In all, 74% of total Westwood One Super Bowl listening occurs away from home.
The Super Bowl on NBC generated $414 million in advertising revenue, a record for a regulation game and only slightly behind last year’s Super Bowl, which went into overtime, according to preliminary estimates by Kantar Media. Kantar says last year’s Super Bowl generated $419 million.
There were 49 minutes and 35 seconds of commercial time from paying sponsors, the NFL and NBC Universal, which matches the third-highest total ever, according to Kantar. Ads accounted for 22% of the broadcast.
The biggest advertisers were Anheuser-Busch InBev and Fiat Chrysler, with 4 minutes each. There were only four new sponsors in the Super Bowl this year, and 40% of the company’s that bought ads in last year’s game did not return. There were 19 commercials that ran 60 seconds or more, representing 31% of the ads. That’s up from the last two years, but not as big as 2014 and 2015, when then accounted for 41% and 38% of the spots, respectively.
Kantar expects that when pre-game and post-game programming is figured in NBC will have raked in more than $500 million in ad revenue.
Last year, the cheapest ticket was about $2,700 for Super Bowl 51. According to StubHub.com, the cheapest “get-in price” as of February 6 at noon was more than $3,100.
Attendance At Super Bowl Events
Here’s the breakdown of Super Bowl attendance numbers:
• 1,055,000: Attendance at Super Bowl LIVE presented by Verizon during the 10-day festival
• 235,000: Attendance at Super Bowl LIVE on Saturday, February 3, biggest attendance day (and also our snowiest)
• 48: Bands/artists performed at Super Bowl LIVE at free and open to the public concerts
• 2285: Total kilometres that 10,000 Bold North Zipliners collectively travelled during the 10-day festival
• 1.4 million: Visitors to Mall of America, the site of NFL Fan Gallery, during the 10-day festival
• 14,500: tons of chips are eaten along with guacamole (avocado mixed with chopped onion, tomatoes, chilli peppers, and seasoning)
• 185,000: Total volunteer hours from 10,000+ Crew 52 volunteers
• 33,000: Total volunteer shifts from 10,000+ Crew 52 volunteers
• 61,000: Record-breaking number of passengers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday, February 5
• 1,630: Private jet arrivals at Twin Cities airports during the week of Super Bowl
• 67,612: Attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium for Super Bowl LII
• 5,800: Record number of credentialed media members for Super Bowl LII
• 25: Different countries represented by the media at Super Bowl LII