Manoj Khimji
motive of wanting to produce the best Super Bowl ad of that particular year. It’s evolved rather nicely into a brand+agency versus brand+agency sporting contest of one-upmanship, much like the sport around which the brands and agencies are advertising. Somehow trying to get this impact through the $5m purchase of 2.1bn programmatically bought banners might be a struggle, cost-effective as it may be.
What strikes me is that this is not necessarily the most watched event on US television this year (and certainly not an event which will have the most impact on the lives of its viewers), but rather it is the best sold event to advertisers. Generating $500m of ad revenue via its pre-game, post-game and commercial breaks, this match between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles (hardly two fancied geographies in the United States) is an event a prospective advertiser could not foresee to be an entertaining or enjoyable game, and with no guarantee that viewers would even stay tuned in for the duration.
In many ways it brings things full circle to the advent of American sports and the reason they are generally broken up into quarters instead of halves, include multiple timeouts for each time, and why stop-starts are a major feature of the games: the advertisement breaks. What better way to squeeze in more prime-time spots and create more ad revenue than by creating longer games?
It’s the perfect combination of sentiment, viewer attention and timing. I wonder what events in the Middle East could command a similar revenue potential? The opening of the Dubai Canal, DSF Fireworks, the inauguration of an airline’s 150th A380? Perhaps we need to create better spectacles in the region, and be more adept at packaging and selling them as showcases. The size of the markets are different, I hear you say. The USA population stands at 320 million, while the Middle East is a shade under 220 million, so the difference is not massive. The ability to create, market and sell is where we may be seeing the bigger gap. Manoj Khimji is managing director of The MediaVantage