Super Bowl commercials are always a stage for big spending, but this year we have some specific numbers to reference as we watch. A report by AdAge has some data on how much the coveted airtime cost advertisers in 2022. A 30-second slot in the Super Bowl halftime apparently started at $6.5 million – about $1 million more than it cost last year.
The starting price of $6.5 million for 30 seconds was just the baseline for the Super Bowl commercials you’ll be seeing this year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, some of the 30-second ads ranged up to $7 million – the highest price in the big game’s history. Insiders at NBC said that the network didn’t finish selling all of these expensive slots off until Thursday, Feb. 3. No separate price for longer ads was listed, so it could be that 1-minute ads cost $14 million and even longer ones cost $21 million or $28 million.
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Of course, that’s just the price of the airtime to show the ads. Let’s not forget that these companies also shelled out for production, celebrity talent and of course marketing, since Super Bowl commercials now get promoted like they are an event in and of themselves.
Still, the names of the companies that paid this hefty price might surprise some viewers. NBC reported that 40 percent of this year’s advertisers are new to the Super Bowl stage. That’s about 30 newcomers in total. It also said that the industries with the biggest growth this year are the automotive, technology, health and wellness, entertainment and travel sectors.
“The NFL has never been stronger and has led us to new records this year. From Sunday Night Football to Football Night in America and through the nail-biting Playoffs, we’ve seen an increased appetite for fans to watch the NFL across all our platforms,” said NBCUniversal’s president of advertising Mark Marshall. “This multiplatform consumption has attracted even more advertisers who have the desire for the immediate scaled reach of sports. And with the power of our One Platform, we’re able to utilize these major moments to maximize viewership and drive business impact for our advertising partners.”
The Super Bowl 2022 begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC, so you can expect the ads to begin a couple of hours later. Many of them are already playing now on TV or are available to view on social media.