Giants, Undefeated 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 19 percent in the past
year before today, were unchanged at $18.85 yesterday on the New
York Stock Exchange.
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.
