Super Bowl Ads 2019: Analyzing Value and Cost of Top Commercials

For advertisers that decide to invest in a Super Bowl ad, the brief appearance during the big game is only the beginning.

Before the dawn of social media and hubs like YouTube, ads were a one-and-done affair. The spot ran at some point during the game, made its impact relative to how the audience received it and possibly got reran a few times later in the following weeks and months.

To call that process archaic would be a gross understatement.

Like the NFL, which will feature the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday, the game continues to change.

The small buy-in for a 30-second ad spot is only about $5 million, according to Tanya Dua of Business Insider. Keep in mind the number will vary based on when within the game an ad airs. That's massive compared to spots back in 1967 during the first Super Bowl, which cost as little as $37,500, according to Tom Huddleston Jr. of CNBC.

But again, $5 million is a tiny number to ask of advertisers because an opportunity like the Super Bowl only comes around once a year. The ad doesn't just air a few times these days. Hype before the ad swarms a brand's name across social media and even more so after the ad airs, should it ring well with audiences.

Ads go much further than they used to because the audience can now engage with them on global platforms.

Look at it this way—for a similar price, a Budweiser ad from January 2017 now has north of 28.5 million views on Youtube.

Not a bad way for an advertiser to spend money, right? By comparison, Ilyse Liffreing of Digiday did some innovative research and found the same budget range of this year's Super Bowl ads could buy a brand 32 years of mobile video ads.

Or put another way, in Facebook impressions: "With a budget of $5.2 million on Facebook, you'd be able to reach 113 million people and generate 450 million impressions over a weeklong campaign, meaning every Facebook user reached would see the ad four times. This campaign would reach 2 million more people than the 111.3 million Nielsen found watched the Super Bowl in 2017."

This is what happens when a prestigious event like the Super Bowl airs. Everyone seems to know someone who only watches the game for the commercials. A year ago, the little pocket of game time captured around 2.5 percent of network advertising for the entirety of 2018, according to AdAge's Bradley Johnson.

Given the embedded value, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see companies that have invested in slots are going all out with this year's Super Bowl campaigns.

The presence of social media and an organic spreading of hype has led some companies to shoot previews for the ad itself. Burger King is one notable to take this route:

Some companies, like Amazon, have decided to capitalize on this hype machine by straight-up releasing their ads well before the game kicks off:

A company like Pepsi decided to presumably spend even more by leaning into star power:

Others, such as Expensify, are hoping a release before making their big Super Bowl debut generates big hype and return on the investment:

Part of the fun is seeing how companies will get innovative with the entire cycle as opposed to the spot itself. That isn't to say the ads themselves aren't fun anymore, but the ever-changing online environment has created a situation wherein companies need to experiment to see what works.

Also in that way, the Super Bowl commercials game is fittingly like the game flanking the ad campaigns Sunday, as two superb coaching staffs look to outsmart one another.