Patriots May Draw Record Super Bowl Audience
This weekends Super Bowl, pitting the
New York Giants against the undefeated New England Patriots, may
draw the most U.S. television viewers in the 42-year history of
the National Football Leagues championship game.
“When we look at the two teams, one is going for perfection
and the other one is going to stop them from going for
perfection, said Tom Ziangas, a senior vice president at
Nielsen Sports. “It looks to be a super Super Bowl.
Thats good news for advertisers such as Victorias Secret
and PepsiCo Inc., which are paying as much as a record $3 million
for a 30-second spot during the Feb. 3 telecast on News Corp.s
Fox network. Fox may bring in $215 million in ad revenue from the
Super Bowl, including pre- and post-game shows, said a person
with knowledge of the sales.
The January 1996 Super Bowl, when the Dallas Cowboys beat
the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17, holds the record for most viewers,
drawing an average of more than 94 million. Thats based on how
many people tune in each minute over the entire game.
“If the game remains competitive, you can approach those
numbers if not surpass, Fox Sports President Ed Goren said in
an interview. “Because of the match-up, the tune-in at the
beginning of the game would be higher than the average Super Bowl
and then its a matter of holding on to those people.
If the Patriots win, theyll complete a perfect 19-0 season,
the first undefeated championship run since the 1972 Miami
Dolphins finished 17-0. The Giants enter the game with a league
record of 10 straight victories on the road.
Mafia-Inspired
A Dec. 29 meeting between the Giants and Patriots was the
most-watched regular-season NFL game in more than 12 years,
drawing 34.5 million viewers on average. The Patriots won 38-35.
Having the Giants in the Super Bowl has the potential to
attract more viewers because of the teams fan base in New York,
the most populous U.S. city with more than 8.2 million
inhabitants. The live nature of sports also attracts advertisers
because fewer people record the game and skip through commercials
compared with TV sitcoms or movies.
Advertisers compete during the game to make their
commercials memorable and provide a reason for non-sports fans to
tune in. This years sponsors include German automaker Audi AG,
Anheuser-Busch Cos., Toyota Motor Corp. and Procter %26amp; Gamble Co.
“You can reach 95 million viewers in one swoop, said
Scott Keogh, the chief marketing officer of Audi of America in
Auburn Hills, Michigan. “The biggest piece for us is the lift
its going to give us on the Web site.
Audi is advertising in the game for the first time in 17
years with a commercial that riffs on Francis Ford Coppolas film
“The Godfather and advertises its first mid-engine sports car.
Audis Web site, which typically attracts 26,000 to 30,000 hits a
day, may get 750,000 to 1.2 million hits in the two days after
the Super Bowl, Keogh said.
Big Apple
In pushing a new product during the game, Audi is following
Apple Inc., which more than two decades ago used its “1984 ad
to unveil the Macintosh computer. Advertisers also take advantage
of the large audience to try new approaches, such as commercials
with story lines that develop through the course of the game.
Singer Justin Timberlake will star in an ad for Pepsis soft
drink. A spot from Victorias Secret, owned by Limited Brands
Inc., features supermodel Adriana Lima as part of the lingerie
brands Valentines Day marketing efforts. Victorias Secret last
ran a spot in the 1999 Super Bowl to publicize its Web site and a
Webcast of its fashion show. That later drew a record of 1.5
million viewers days later and crashed the site.
The personalities in this Super Bowl may also attract
attention. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who dates model
Gisele Bundchen, faces Eli Manning, whose older brother Peyton
was named most valuable player in last years championship game.
The half-time show, marked in 2004 by the controversial exposure
of Janet Jacksons breast during a performance with Timberlake,
this year will feature singer Tom Petty.
Brady Versus Manning
“It truly is an event that goes beyond the two teams that are
playing it, said Ziangas of Nielsen Sports, a New York-based
researcher. “Storylines, players, history, all these things
collide into an uber-event.
Advertiser interest has been heightened by the three-month
Hollywood writers strike, which has deprived companies of fresh
programming for their ads. Fox said on Jan. 29 that it had sold
its final spot, the earliest for any of the five Super Bowls the
network has carried, spokesman Lou DErmilio said.
News Corp. Class A shares, down 16 percent in the past
year, rose 56 cents, or 3 percent, to $19.41 at 4:06 p.m. in New
York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The presence of the Giants will probably draw more viewers
than usual from New York, which makes up about 10 percent of the
U.S. television audience, said Rick Gentile, a former CBS Sports
executive. While theres a risk the West Coast audience may be
turned off by the East Coast-dominated contest, its draw will
ultimately depend on how compelling the game is, he said.
“It has a lot of things going for it, said Gentile, who
directs the sports poll at Seton Hall University in South Orange,
New Jersey. “It will be among the most-watched games of all
time.
