The Baltimore Ravens are all set to take on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. But big changes are in store for what's also known as the Advertising Bowl.
CBS still has one :30 spot for sale but the network struggled to book all of its ad time. Several factors contributed to this year's hard sell. Dwindling Internet interest. Flat ad prices. Two football teams viewers aren't that psyched about watching. Even the remaining :30 spot falls in the fourth quarter slot.
The Dot.Com flood of advertisers is only a puddle this year but Super Bowl XXXIV claimed 17 Internet companies as advertisers. Only three Dot.Coms are shelling out the big bucks for ad time in XXXV.
Last year's ad prices were competitive given the heavy competition among Dot.Coms. But CBS plans to generate additional revenue by placing more pre-game commercials and hourly sponsorships.
Reports out of the CBS camp claim advertisers are paying between $2.2 to $2.4 million. But Anheuser-Busch averaged between $1.9 million and $2 million for its eight in-game spots.
While 16 percent of viewers claim to watch the Super Bowl just for its ads, a whopping 58 percent say they pay more attention to ads airing during the game. Some of this year's viewers may even be watching for one reason: Survivor II.
The highly anticipated follow-up to last summer's ratings hit debuts immediately after the Super Bowl. Survivor II: The Australian Outback is also carrying five of the Super Bowl advertisers as exclusive sponsors. Anheuser-Busch, Cingular, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo and Visa paid between $10 million and $12 million each to be one of the nine Survivor sponsors.
That could mean an unusual perk for fourth quarter Super Bowl advertisers. Research shows that viewership typically decreases during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. As a result, ad rates fall from the first quarter to the fourth. Even if this year's Bowl is a blowout, viewers will probably hang in there for Survivor II.
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