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Kantar Media: NBCU tallies over $400M in-game ad dollars with Super Bowl

NBCUniversal Media LLC posted over $400 million in-game advertising with its presentation of Super Bowl LII, the second-most ever with the NFL championship game, according to a preliminary estimate by Kantar Media.

WPP Plc's audience measurement and media insights group issued what it said was a conservative estimate that there was $414 million in advertising spending from spots airing within the NFL championship game in which Philadelphia defeated New England on Feb. 4. That ranks as the most ever for a regulation-time Super Bowl, and only trails the $419 million realized by FOX (US) with Super Bowl LI, the first that pushed into overtime.

Dan Lovinger, executive vice president of advertising sales at NBC Sports Group, said the game reached a sellout on Feb. 2. Lovinger had said Comcast’s programming arm would set a single-day ad sales record for a media company on Super Bowl Sunday, when units in pre- and postgame Super Bowl programming, as well as a postgame special edition of hit drama "This Is Us," were added into the equation.

Kantar Media projected that with pregame and postgame programming, total revenue would easily exceed $500 million. According to Kantar Media, Super Bowl LII included 49 minutes and 35 seconds of commercial time, which matched the third most ever for a Super Bowl.

Anheuser-Busch InBev and Fiat Chrysler were the top spenders, each grabbing 4 minutes of commercial time. Toyota was third with 3 minutes, and Amazon.com Inc. came in fourth with 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Lovinger had said a number of long-form ads would air during Super Bowl LII. Of the in-game spots, 19 ran 60-seconds or longer, the most since 2015, according to Kantar Media. Auto manufacturers were again the most frequent drivers of longer-form messaging, running seven of these 19 commercials.

Per usual, automotive was the top Super Bowl advertising category, running 11 spots totaling 9 minutes. Beer was second, as Anheuser-Busch ran six commercials, for a total of 4 minutes. Motion picture and telecom followed.

The four categories accounted for 40% of the paid ads in the NFL championship game.

There were also ads from streaming services, Hulu LLC, Netflix Inc. and Amazon Prime.

There were only four first-time marketers during the game — Australia Tourism, Blacture.com, video game website Giant Bomb and Monster (maker of audio headphones) — the fewest in the past decade.