Staggering cost companies had to pay to secure a Super Bowl advert

It is officially the Super Bowl weekend, with the Philadelphia Eagles up against the Kansas City Chiefs at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

In the US alone, just shy of 100 million people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl last year, in what was a close fought out battle between Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams.

While the action on the field is the main event, it's hard to argue against the fact that adverts, or commercials as our US friends would say, play a huge part.

In fact, there are some people that don't really have any interest in the actual match, and are tuning in to watch the ads instead.

US Air Force Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

That alongside the half-time show of course, which will be fronted by Rihanna for this year's Super Bowl.

Anyway, I digress. Those that tune in each year for the quirky commercials will be shocked to find out the staggering price pay to secure an advert on the Super Bowl.

Obviously, marketing your product in front of 100 million people is not going to be cheap, so you are going to need big pockets to secure an ad on the main show.

Quite a lot of money in fact, as companies that have secured an advert for Super Bowl 2023 have had to pay an eye-watering $7 million (£5.7 million) for the privilege, according to Variety.

Stats from Statista and a tweet from sports businessman Joe Pompliano show the rapid rise of Super Bowl ads since 1967.

With the first Super Bowl back then, the price a company had to pay for an advert cost a merely $42,500.

McDonald's

Come 1975, that had more than doubled to $107,000, and doubled again to $222,000 in 1980.

There was a sharp increase to an ad costing over half a million come 1985, and by 1995, it cost companies $1.2 million.

At the turn of the century, a space on the main show was coming in at around $2 million, hitting $3 million come 2010.

The last two years have all seen increases, with companies paying $5.5 million in 2021 and $6.5 million in 2022.

So who are some of the companies paying the whopping $7 million for a 30-second advert on the Super Bowl this year?

Ones that have released teasers ahead of the big game include T-Mobile, Budweiser, Booking.com and Pringles.