Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - While many tune in to Super Bowl Sunday for the game itself on a yearly basis, a number of others are tuning in for another entertaining factor for the event: The commercials.
John Jiloty from The Martin Group says the costs for a Super Bowl commercial continue to go up, with a prime slot for this year's game costing around $10 million. He says that's more than double what it was less than 10 years ago.
Jiloty feels the Super Bowl continues to be the opportunity for companies and other brands to reach a mass audience watching something at one time.
"With less-and-less appointment viewing, it's really the Super Bowl, maybe the Grammys, maybe the Oscars, or a few other things that people actually all gather around for. But not as many as a Super Bowl," said Jiloty in an interview with WBEN.
"And the ads are part of the program. It's not an interruption, it's not a departure from what you're trying to watch. It's, in some cases, the priority for people that are watching and tuning in. So it becomes an amazing opportunity to reach a ton of people in one place at one time."
Jiloty acknowledges the popularity of Super Bowl commercials has dropped a bit, but it comes with the times due to the advancements of technology.
"I think there's a lot more distractions. Everybody's on their phones or their second screen, third screen, doing a million other things, which I think factors in here," Jilioty said. "10, 15, 20 years ago, you were sitting down, watching the TV and watching the ads and the game, and that's all you had to do. There's no other distractions other than snacks, maybe. I think that plays into it, but in general, there's still interest."
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One factor that keeps people tuned in for the commercials every Super Bowl, according to Jiloty, is the celebrity factor and the relevancy factor of those celebrities.
"Everybody wants to see who's relevant and who's trending," Jiloty noted. "I do think they're still interested in that, because that is such a barometer for what is hot and trending and popular right now. I think that becomes a nice factor for people young and old, just to see who's playing out there. So I think it's still of interest for sure, and the costs keep going up. So brands are still interested, for sure."
One thing Jiloty notes with this year's Super Bowl commercials is the different combination of celebrities together.
"The Benson Boone and Ben Stiller one for Instacart. I think those are combinations that you probably wouldn't have imagined. Shane Gillis and Peyton Manning and Post Malone together in a car is something that you wouldn't see elsewhere. I guess those combinations, they're interesting," he said. "Humor generally seems to dominate, in terms of themes throughout."
There are also a number of brands that broke through this year with some more serious messaging in their commercials.
"The Dove ad about young girls playing sports and body positivity. I thought that was a nice one that kind of cut through the noise a little bit, in terms of a more serious tone for an arena that tends to be a little bit more fun and lively," Jiloty said. "But you're also seeing a lot of healthcare brands this year, and that could seem kind of counterintuitive, given the nature of sitting on your couch eating probably unhealthy food on a Sunday. But I think the healthy trends messaging and the wellness theme right now is breaking through."
Over the last several years, more-and-more Super Bowl ads have been airing before the "Big Game", getting some airtime on television, while also being available online through services like YouTube.
While some may not like the early airtime for many of these commercials, Jiloty feels the ads should be played early to get the buzz going ahead of time.
"I just think with the amount of money that you're investing in these ads, you might as well get some more mileage out of them. And I do think there's a lot of conversation leading up to the game, everybody's been talking about a few of these ads leading up to the weekend. I think that's beneficial, it gets more of the buzz going," he said. "And a lot of these brands, especially this year, I'm seeing more-and-more of the teaser ads that came out early. I think that's a great way - with the Instacart ad, they had five or six teasers. Uber Eats had a bunch of those. So a lot of these brands are cutting up those ads.
"You're going to spend $10-to-$12 million on production for these ads, in addition to what you're paying for the spots, you might as well get a bunch of 15-to-30-second teasers that you can put out on social media ahead of time and get people talking and get people interested in and excited about it, even if you're not introducing the whole ad. But in general, I feel like you're seeing more ads released early, and I think that's better to just get people talking. Those in the industry are talking about it, and then the fans that maybe don't watch those ahead of time are going to tune in and be surprised. So I think you're still getting the best of both worlds with that strategy."
Then there are some adds that get the airtime during the Super Bowl, but then are never aired once again after the game ends. As most things in life, Jiloty says it probably comes down to cost.
"You've got to spend per-30 seconds or 60 seconds that you're buying, and the Super Bowl, for a lot of these brands, they're the pinnacle of reaching the sports and the non-sports audience in one place. Maybe they're not seeing the value," Jiloty explained. "And in another instance, the Olympics is maybe a little bit of that crossover between sports and non-sports fans. But other programming is hard to find. Obviously, we're in an Olympics year, so it's a little bit different. But it's just such a rare opportunity to hit a broad swath of folks who, again, are sports fans and non-sports fans. So I think that becomes a huge value there.
"You're going to spend $8-to-$10 million on the Super Bowl spot, maybe another $10-to-12 million on the spot itself. That's a pretty big investment to do that again elsewhere."
That's also part of the reason why the commercials are getting more exposure in the lead up to the game.
"That's where you're going to see a lot on social, you're going to see it on landing pages. A lot of those digital opportunities where you can hit people with your own channels without the cost of buying the time on TV," Jiloty added.