Anheuser-Busch believed to have paid up to USD 85 000 per second for Super Bowl commercials
It may have been the climax of the American football season. The Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears 29-17 in a game played on 4 February 2007 during a driving rainstorm in Miami. But it was not the game that gripped the audience’s attention: it was the commercials, many of which were shown for the first time. With 93.2 million viewers, the Super Bowl is a hit with U.S. audiences, only to be topped by the Oscar ceremony which draws a larger, albeit world-wide, audience. That is why Anheuser-Busch showed nine commercials at this year’s Super Bowl, featuring humour, horses and Jay-Z, in what the company’s top ad executive called an essential part of its business strategy.
Even as critics say the price of Super Bowl advertisements has risen too far -- they can cost up to USD 85 000 per second -- Anheuser-Busch is maintaining its spot as the top advertiser in the biggest TV event of the year. According to media reports, Anheuser-Busch started preparing for the Super Bowl 2007 in September 2006, then turned about 30 of those pitches into actual commercials. The ads that did not make the cut are run later in the year.
For Super Bowl, the company bought ten 30-second spots. It ran nine ads, combining two of its 30-second spots into one 60-second spot.
Although Anheuser-Busch declined to disclose the amount it paid for airing these spots, a recent study estimates that it has bought USD 250 million of ad time in Super Bowl over the last two decades, far more than any other marketer.
Anheuser-Busch’s best ads for the event usually involve humour. But many ads, that have hit the emotion card, have played very well too. Lately, the emotional commercials for Budweiser have featured its famous Clydesdale horses, including a spot that commemorated 11 September 2001 and ran only during the Super Bowl of 2002.
This year, the Clydesdales were be back in one Budweiser commercial, while other lighter, less emotional spots showed astronauts toasting in a space station and crabs stealing a cooler of beer from sunbathers.
Anheuser-Busch, which works chiefly with ad agency DDB Worldwide, is keeping with tradition by running humorous spots for its Bud Light brand.
It was reported that in one, a couple seen is driving down a dark road, studying a map, when they come across a hitchhiker.
"Should we pick him up?" the man asks. "He has Bud Light."
"He has an axle," the woman points out.
"But he has Bud Light," he says.
"And an axle," she says.
"Mmmm, I’m sure there’s a reason for it," he says.
That’s called a prime example of American humour.
