With the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers set to compete in the 2024 Super Bowl, discussions about the TV commercials during this highly anticipated event are picking up. While many regular advertisers will return to air their ads to the over 110 million viewers in the U.S., some familiar names will be missing this year.
As professors who specialize in marketing and business ethics, we took a closer look at the Super Bowl advertisers to identify trends. One of the most surprising findings was the absence of the Big Four automakers – Ford, General Motors, Chrysler parent Stellantis, and Toyota.
These companies have opted to spend their ad budgets on more targeted marketing campaigns. Kia and BMW, however, will advertise their new electric vehicles, while Volkswagen will celebrate its 75th anniversary in the U.S. through its ads.
Another notable absence is GoDaddy, which has been known for its Super Bowl ads in the past. The company’s management has shared that it is exploring other marketing strategies that might create more engagement with its target audience.
This year, food and beverage brands dominate the list of advertisers, and Super Bowl ads sold out by early November 2023. Many of these brands appeal to a wide range of viewers. First-time advertisers such as Popeyes, Drumstick, Nerds, and Pepsi’s new lemon-lime soda, Starry, will join returning advertisers like Reese’s, M&M’s, Pringles, Frito-Lay, and Mountain Dew.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, is planning multiple ads across its brands, including Bud Light, which faced some recent controversy, aiming to continue its history of memorable Super Bowl commercials.
At a cost of up to $7 million for a 30-second commercial, the price for a Super Bowl ad has remained the same as last year. This cost doesn’t include the expenses of producing the ads, which can be more than double the cost of airing them. In total, a single ad could cost over $20 million.
So, what do these advertisers hope to achieve, and is it worth the investment? For many, it clearly is.
Effective ads often become memorable well before the game and continue to get attention long after. Teasers and trailers, sometimes the full ads, are released in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, reviewed on TV, online, and across social media.
After the game, people continue discussing which ads were successful, and some ads even have a lasting impact that goes beyond the Super Bowl. For example, the iconic 1980 Coca-Cola commercial featuring Pittsburgh’s Mean Joe Greene and a young fan remains memorable today.
Even decades later, these ads are still part of Super Bowl discussions, and they’ve been revived in new commercials, like the remake of the “Have a Coke and a Mean Joe Greene” ad for Coke Zero in 2009.
So, why are big companies like the Big Four automakers, GoDaddy, and others pulling back from Super Bowl ads? Younger generations, especially Gen Z, don’t seem as interested in Super Bowl ads and aren’t as engaged with traditional broadcast TV.
Marketers are finding that platforms like TikTok are more effective for reaching specific audiences, with a better return on investment, and easier tracking of how ads perform. These ads are often shared quickly among family and friends, making the reach more effective.
However, even with the rise of social media, the Super Bowl is still a rare event with massive reach. Over 60% of Americans watched the game last year, according to the NFL, which is a large number of viewers.
Today’s marketers understand that Super Bowl commercials are most successful when they promote products that appeal to a wide audience, often using humor, animals, nostalgia, celebrities, or causes that resonate with viewers.
Associating a brand with memorable, creative storytelling is an effective way to enhance brand visibility. This is the strategy that advertisers will likely use in the 2024 Super Bowl.
