It's no secret that some people tune into the Super Bowl just to see the commercials. Numerous new and creative spots make their debuts during the annual football extravaganza, and advertisers pay a fortune just to get a piece of the action. Major corporations like Pepsi and Anheuser Busch can afford to pay for the commercials each year, but it's usually not a marketing opportunity that video game publishers take advantage of. However, a new story in Ad Age, which lists all the companies that have purchased ad spots for the Super Bowl this year, reveals that Electronic Arts has indeed purchased "at least one spot. "
The agency behind the spot will be Wieden & Kennedy, but the actual product being advertised is not yet known. Considering that Dante's Inferno ships just two days after the Super Bowl, we're going to guess that it'll be a spot to promote that upcoming action title. Of course, EA could always take the opportunity to advertise Madden some more, but we're not sure the end of the football season is the right timing to do that, even though the audience is certainly there.
It's likely that EA paid at least $2.5 million just for a 30-second spot, since pricing for this year's Super Bowl spots is estimated to come in between $2.5 million and $2.8 million. According to a recent AdWeek article, the cost of a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl has more than quadrupled since 1989. The problem for marketers is that this cost increase has easily outstripped the event's delivery gains over the last 20 years.
3 Comments
January 22, 2010
That seems like an odd way to spend marketing dollars when your product line is floundering... I hope the titles they are pushing in that ad are worthy of that expense. Increasingly, large marketing expenditures are less able to make up for poor game quality. You can't expect to make a ton of money on sell-in and get out of town before the customers find out the game is no good... it just doesn't work the way it used to, guys.
January 25, 2010
It seems likely to be Dante's Inferno, what with EA's willingness to throw money around for their God of War usurper. It better be a great spot; trying to convince a mainstream audience that they want an "M" rated game like Dante's Inferno will not be easy.
March 11, 2010
It better be a great spot; trying to convince a mainstream audience that they want an "M" rated game like Dante's Inferno will not be easy.
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