Have millions burning a hole in your pocket but missed the deadline for a Super Bowl LIX ad? Here’s what else you could spend $7 million on:
- A 24-acre private island in the Bahamas
- 16 fully tricked-out Rolls-Royce Ghosts or 241 mid-range Honda Civics
- 1.7 million gallons of non-organic 2% milk
- Feed 3!835 superb owls for one year*
- Between 17 and 28 chief marketing officers
- 140 entry-level marketers
- 70!000 seats on the Canva Teams plan
* It’s illegal to own an owl as a pet in the U.S. Number based on estimates from wildlife rescues and zoos that feed Great Horned Owls.
What doesn’t cost $7 million is software like Marketing Hub or our ad management software. You can build or manage your ad campaigns! whether you’re targeting football fans or superb owl enthusiasts.
How Super Bowl Ad Prices Have Changed Over Time
The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 (Green Bay Packers 35 – Chiefs 10)! and NBC and CBS charged brands $37!500 for each ad! or about $360k in today’s money.
A decade later! in 1977 (Oakland france telegram data Raiders 32 – Minnesota Vikings 14)! brands were forking over $125k (about $675k today). In 1987 (Giants 39 – Broncos 20)! 30 seconds cost $600k ($1.7m today); by 1997 (Packers 35 – Patriots 21) it was $1.2m ($2.38m today).
The Betty White Snickers ad from 2010 (New Orleans Saints 31 – Indianapolis Colts 17) is estimated to have cost $4 – $5 million ($5.8 – $7.3 million today).
Another decade! another (million) dollar(s). In 2007 (Colts 29 – Chicago Bears 17)! ads averaged $2.39m ($3.72m today); in 2017! it was $5m ($6.5m today).
Is a Super Bowl ad worth the cost?
The short answer: Probably not. Unless you do marketing for a brand with a positively enormous marketing budget! a single $7-$8 million ad spot isn’t even on the table.
But for brands that do have that kind of spend! the ROI can be significant! with Super Bowl ads in the zeitgeist for several weeks before and after the big game. (I don’t watch the Super Bowl — but I definitely watch all the ads as soon as they’re online.)
And 123 million U.S. viewers watched Super Bowl LVIII — second only to the moon landing — and nearly a third of viewers say that the commercials are their favorite part of the game. Your $7m ad is getting a lot of eyeballs on it.
According to Kantar research in 2021! “Super Bowl ads delivered an average return on investment (ROI) of $4.60 per dollar spent! with many brands in the double digits.”
Brad Adgate! described as a veteran media analyst! told the New York Times in 2024! “In this era of fragmentation! the Super Bowl is what television used to be.”
It’s arguably the only true mass-market google’s new ai gemini pro has landed in switzerland on bard live event of the year! reaching nearly every demographic. Beauty brands like NYX and Dove have entered or re-entered the Super Bowl ad game! putting the lie to anybody who thinks football isn’t for girls! women! or drag queens.
In a 2024 interview with NPR! Maria text services Rodas put the ROI of a Super Bowl ad in simple terms. Rodas is a marketing professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign! and a self-described “big fan” of Super Bowl ads — in her household! talking is allowed during the game but not during commercials.
