NBC has done it.
Though inking 30 second ad deals for a cool $4.5 million a pop couldn’t have been entirely easy, the network is saying it “overcame a challenging ad sales marketplace to sell all available slots during Super Bowl XLIX.”
“The three networks with NFL deals alternate hosting the big game and typically hold some spots back to the last minute when scarcity drives higher prices,” noted the International Business Times (IBT) in a post on Super Bowl ad sales. “Seth Winter, the executive vice president of advertising sales for NBC’s sports and media group told reporters Wednesday that all available ad units for the Super Bowl telecast and postgame had been sold out, and that only a handful of units remained for the pregame coverage.”
And guess what? Winter added the cherry on top of that advertising sundae by noting that all digital ad inventory had also been sold.
“This was not the easiest exercise I’ve ever been through,” Winter said.
One interesting factlet is that 15 first-time advertisers will air ads during the 2015 Super Bowl. That’s the best newcomer showing since 2000, when 19 newbies bellied up to the Super Bowl bar. Many of those were Silicon Valley startups like Pets.com; this year, two of the new entrants are adhesive brand Loctite and the foot cream brand Jublia.
“Both brands certainly had money to spend,” said IBT. “NBC’s asking price was $4.5 million per 30 seconds of air time this year, a not-insignificant increase from the $4.2 million advertisers paid in 2014. Last-minute advertisers are more likely to pay full-freight, while returning advertisers or those buying many spots would get a discount.”
The big touchdown for NBC? Winter says eighteen of the advertisers who sprung for airtime during the game also agreed to buy digital ads on NBC’s livestream, a development that helped NBC more than triple the revenue it generated during its 2012 presentation of the Super Bowl.
