Whether or not you’re a diehard Tremendous Bowl fan or, like me, choose watching excellent owls, you gotta admit: Tremendous Bowl commercials are fairly nice.
They’re additionally fairly costly. And nonetheless, Fox, which holds the rights to Tremendous Bowl LIX, simply bought all of the advert spots for the large sport on February 9, 2025.
Let’s check out what goes into the costliest TV adverts on the planet, how a lot they’ve value all through the historical past of the large sport, and what manufacturers are actually getting out of them.
Desk of Contents
How a lot does a Tremendous Bowl advert value?
It’s slightly difficult to place a quantity to the price of a mean, non-Tremendous Bowl TV advert, for the reason that numbers can range from a pair hundred thousand to a number of million {dollars}. However let’s give this query some context:
In 2024 (Kansas Metropolis Chiefs 25 – San Francisco 49ers 22), U.S. and Canadian advertisers spent an estimated $69 billion on TV promoting. That’s the GDP of Costa Rica.
The highest 10 TV advertisers within the U.S. — we’re speaking manufacturers like Geico, Burger King, and T-Cellular — spent a mean of practically $7.5 million each week in 2023 (Chiefs 38 – Philadelphia Eagles 35).
Upfront primetime advert gross sales — these are the adverts you’ll see on main TV networks between about 8 and 11 p.m. or 7 and 10 p.m., relying in your time zone — had been projected to hit $19.12 million in 2024, which is definitely a slight lower from 2023.
Google’s 90-second “Loretta” advert from the 2020 Tremendous Bowl (Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31 – Chiefs 9) value the search behemoth $16.8 million ($20.5 million at present).
Drilling down slightly additional, let’s have a look at the 5 most costly 30-second advert spots in the course of the 2020/21 broadcast tv season, in response to a Statista report:
NBC Sunday Night time Soccer: $783,718 per advert
Fox Thursday Night time Soccer: $624,626 per advert
NBC’s This Is Us: $476,352 per advert
NBC’s The Voice (Monday): $254,224 per advert
Fox’s The Masked Singer: $225,764 per advert
Awards season can be catnip for advertisers, with a 30-second spot in the course of the 2024 Academy Awards commanding a mean of $2.2 million.
Amazon’s 90-second “Earlier than Alexa” advert from 2020 value $16.8 million ($20.5 million at present).
In 2025, 30-second Tremendous Bowl advert spots bought for about $7 million a pop. That’s practically 220% greater than a spot on the Oscars, and practically 800% greater than a daily season Sunday Night time Soccer business. In late January, a number of information studies stated that Fox truly bought not less than 10 advert spots for $8 million a pop, citing unnamed sources “near the matter.”
And that’s simply to air the advert — one time. It doesn’t account for movie star spokespeople, who’re making a cool $1 – $3 million every; premium advert company prices; manufacturing and post-production prices; even the advertising and marketing finances for the adverts themselves.
Lately, between 70 and 100 commercials have aired throughout every Tremendous Bowl sport, including as much as round 40 minutes of commercials.
In 2012 (New York Giants 21 – New England Patriots 17), Tremendous Bowl adverts value $3.5 million ($4.9 million at present) for a 30-second spot. Chevrolet and OK Go’s musical Rube Goldsbergian machine took 4 months of prep and price an estimated $500k – $1m to supply ($700k – $1.4m at present).
Some manufacturers snag embellished Hollywood administrators for the shoots, and whereas numbers are arduous to return by, it’s protected to imagine that these administrators raked in some money:
The Coen Brothers directed the 2017 (Patriots 34 – Atlanta Falcons 28) Mercedes advert, an homage to the counterculture biker movie Straightforward Rider.
On the 1984 Tremendous Bowl (Las Vegas Raiders 38 – Washington, D.C. 9), a Ridley Scott-helmed Orwellian advert launched Apple’s first-ever Macintosh laptop.
David Fincher directed a swaggering Brad Pitt in Heineken’s “Beer Run” from 2005 (Patriots 24 – Eagles 21)
If you happen to’ve watched even one Tremendous Bowl, you most likely know the manufacturers at play — normally the largest names in tech, meals, laptop, and beer. Budweiser, Reserving.com, Dunkin’, and Volkswagen had been favorites of the 2024 Tremendous Bowl.
Regardless that Google and Amazon share the title for most costly Tremendous Bowl advert ever, the King of Beers is the King of Tremendous Bowl advert spend. Anheuser-Busch spent an estimated $470.5 million on its wildly in style Budweiser adverts between 1967 and 2020.
In 1999 (Denver Broncos 34 – Falcons 19), a 30-second Tremendous Bowl advert value $1.6 million ($3.1 million at present).
84 Lumber’s “The Journey Begins” spot value $16.2 million in 2017 ($20.1 million at present), making it among the many most costly Tremendous Bowl adverts in historical past.
How A lot Can You Purchase With the Price of a Tremendous Bowl Advert?
Have tens of millions burning a gap in your pocket however missed the deadline for a Tremendous Bowl LIX advert? Right here’s what else you possibly can spend $7 million on:
* It’s unlawful to personal an owl as a pet within the U.S. Quantity primarily based on estimates from wildlife rescues and zoos that feed Nice Horned Owls.
What does not value $7 million is software program like Advertising and marketing Hub or our advert administration software program. You possibly can construct or handle your advert campaigns, whether or not you are focusing on soccer followers or excellent owl fans.
How Tremendous Bowl Advert Costs Have Modified Over Time
The primary Tremendous Bowl was performed in 1967 (Inexperienced Bay Packers 35 – Chiefs 10), and NBC and CBS charged manufacturers $37,500 for every advert, or about $360k in at present’s cash.
A decade later, in 1977 (Oakland Raiders 32 – Minnesota Vikings 14), manufacturers had been forking over $125k (about $675k at present). In 1987 (Giants 39 – Broncos 20), 30 seconds value $600k ($1.7m at present); by 1997 (Packers 35 – Patriots 21) it was $1.2m ($2.38m at present).
The Betty White Snickers advert from 2010 (New Orleans Saints 31 – Indianapolis Colts 17) is estimated to have value $4 – $5 million ($5.8 – $7.3 million at present).
One other decade, one other (million) greenback(s). In 2007 (Colts 29 – Chicago Bears 17), adverts averaged $2.39m ($3.72m at present); in 2017, it was $5m ($6.5m at present).
Is a Tremendous Bowl advert price the associated fee?
The brief reply: In all probability not. Except you do advertising and marketing for a model with a positively huge advertising and marketing finances, a single $7-$8 million advert spot isn’t even on the desk.
However for manufacturers that do have that sort of spend, the ROI might be important, with Tremendous Bowl adverts within the zeitgeist for a number of weeks earlier than and after the large sport. (I don’t watch the Tremendous Bowl — however I undoubtedly watch all of the adverts as quickly as they’re on-line.)
And 123 million U.S. viewers watched Tremendous Bowl LVIII — second solely to the moon touchdown — and practically a 3rd of viewers say that the commercials are their favourite a part of the sport. Your $7m advert is getting a variety of eyeballs on it.
In keeping with Kantar analysis in 2021, “Tremendous Bowl adverts delivered a mean return on funding (ROI) of $4.60 per greenback spent, with many manufacturers within the double digits.”
Brad Adgate, described as a veteran media analyst, informed the New York Instances in 2024, “On this period of fragmentation, the Tremendous Bowl is what tv was once.”
It’s arguably the one true mass-market reside occasion of the 12 months, reaching practically each demographic. Magnificence manufacturers like NYX and Dove have entered or re-entered the Tremendous Bowl advert sport, placing the mislead anyone who thinks soccer isn’t for ladies, girls, or drag queens.
In a 2024 interview with NPR, Maria Rodas put the ROI of a Tremendous Bowl advert in easy phrases. Rodas is a advertising and marketing professor on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a self-described “large fan” of Tremendous Bowl adverts — in her family, speaking is allowed in the course of the sport however not throughout commercials.
Rodas informed NPR, “[Super Bowl ads are] like mini-movies. [Advertisers] rent these large celebrities. The manufacturing worth is insane. And so swiftly, $7 million might be, like, the smallest of what they spend in comparison with the remainder [of the money] that they put into creating these.”
“To have this virtually undivided consideration supplies an incredible alternative for entrepreneurs to create a story, to actually be capable to join at a a lot deeper stage with shoppers.”
Classes in Tremendous Bowl Advertising and marketing
That connection is necessary whether or not you’ve got a $7 million or $700 advert finances.
And loads of manufacturers have discovered options to shelling out $7 million+ large ones.
So don’t despair in the event you’re doing advertising and marketing on a modest and even shoestring finances — $7 million should buy you 100+ million viewers, however no amount of cash could make up for dangerous advertising and marketing.