Super Bowl Commercials 2015: Ad Costs, Value Review Before Patriots vs. Seahawks

With more than 100 million people set to watch Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, advertisers are putting their best foot forward with commercials to pump up the value of their brand. 

Some of the ads will strike a chord with viewers, others will slide off their backs like rain in a storm, but all of them are crucial for the companies and what they are planning to do for the year. 

Even though everyone will be watching the ads, who knows what goes into the process of them? What does the hefty price tag to advertise on the Super Bowl really bring a company? Is it worth it? All of these are interesting questions with layers, so let's examine the answers. 

Super Bowl XLIX Ad Cost

There is no commercial time more valuable to a company than a 30- or 60-second spot during the biggest football game of the year. I'm not in advertising, but in my experience watching Mad Men, the purpose of it is to make people believe they need something no matter how big or small it is. 

As a result, the network broadcasting the Super Bowl is able to charge an exorbitant amount of money to make that happen. This year's game, televised on NBC, has the highest price in history for a 30-second spot in history at $4.5 million, per Lindsay Kramer of Syracuse.com. 

That rather large price tag won't guarantee your commercial gets success with the people who review them after the fact, but Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports speculates more people could be watching the Patriots vs. Seahawks than any game in history:

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NBC producer Fred Gaudelli – who handles the network's Super Bowl and Sunday Night Football lineup – has already gone on the record saying there is an expectation that a new viewership record will be set on Sunday. To accomplish that, NBC will have to draw more than 112.2 million total viewers. But given the matchup and star power of the Patriots and defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks...

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NBC has had a lot of big television events throughout history, including Super Bowls and finales for cultural phenomena like Seinfeld, Cheers and Friends, but it's not unreasonable to think that this year's big game will provide more advertising revenue than anything that came before it. 

Value of a Super Bowl Ad

Uncredited/Associated Press

Aside from the obvious benefit of exposure for a company, there are conflicting theories about whether Super Bowl ads are actually worth the cost.

Before last year's game between Seattle and Denver, Rob Siltanen, who is the founder of an advertising agency and created past Super Bowl commercials, wrote a piece for Forbes.com about why these ads are worth the price by citing specific examples of improvement for companies:

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The magical power of the Super Bowl has also played a key role in redefining and jump-starting sales for brands such as Audi and Chrysler. Audi has now been in seven-straight Super Bowls, and with cool commercials like last year’s 60-second “Prom” spot, it’s no surprise that the carmaker has become the new darling of the luxury-car segment—doubling their market share since 2006.

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Siltanen also wrote that advertising during the Super Bowl isn't the end game, as companies still have to be aggressive with public relations and social media, among other things, to ensure the public remains aware of what they do. 

On the other side, David Griner of The Washington Post wrote that the actual cost of a spot for these companies isn't worth the price of admission:

"Super Bowl ads don’t come cheap," Griner wrote. "This year, the price tag is $4.5 million for a 30-second spot—and that covers just the fee paid to the network hosting the game. Millions more can be spent on celebrity appearances, music licensing, agency fees and production."

Griner also cited a report on NPR from Shankar Vedantam in which he said, "These companies are either getting ripped off or they are ripping themselves off."

Another citation in Griner's article by BrandAds, which surveys consumers about their awareness of a company, contradicts that sentiment:

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In 2014, a survey of 37,440 U.S. consumers by the tech firm BrandAds found that the average Super Bowl ad increased viewers’ likelihood of buying the product by 6.6 percent. The number was far higher for the most popular spots, with Hyundai seeing a 39.5 percent lift and Budweiser scoring a 37.8 percent increase. Only 16 percent of brands created negative interest with their ads. 

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Basically, what these seemingly differing reports are saying is the same thing. It's not enough just to have an advertisement air during the Super Bowl. The company or product that is being sold must be effective by striking a chord with the viewing audience. 

In many ways, these ads are no different than a movie or television show. Even though they are considerably shorter, you want to feel something in the brief story being told. If that happens, whether it's joy or sadness or something else, the money spent to show the commercial will be worth it.