The Super Bowl is less than a week away, which means if people aren’t talking about the 49ers or the Chiefs, they’re only talking about one thing: Super Bowl ads.
For millions of Americans, the Super Bowl is about football. For millions of others, it’s about the advertising.
So how is Super Bowl advertising shaping up this year compared to the previous five years?
Over the last 5 years, the #1 product category buying Super Bowl ad placements is Beer, which has accounted for almost 8% of the over $1.7B spent on Super Bowl ad slots in the last 5 years.
Top Advertisers & Top Spenders
Over the past five years (from 2015 to 2019), only seven companies have run ads for every single Super Bowl. These seven companies are:
As you can see, the most consistent advertisers are all over the map in terms of industry representation. Four of the seven (AB InBev, Hyundai, Toyota, and WeatherTech) are already confirmed to be returning to this year’s game. The others have not yet confirmed.
These seven brands advertising year after year doesn’t necessarily mean they are the top spenders for Super Bowl ads.
Looking at the chart above, we see brands like Google and Amazon have not advertised every year but have been major spenders when they do.
Beer is King, and AB InBev Wears the Crown
Over the last 5 years, the #1 product category buying Super Bowl ad placements is Beer. The adult beverage has accounted for almost 8 percent of the over $1.7B spent on Super Bowl ad slots in the last 5 years.
The top spender (AB InBev) has advertised 7 different brands over the last 5 years. In terms of spend, their top 3 brands are:
- Bud Light ($54M)
- Michelob ULTRA ($28M)
- Budweiser ($23M)
According to the Super Bowl ad tracker (filtered by AB InBev), the company will again be a big spender this year, with at least 6 ad buys during the game.
Politics and Football
Both the Trump and Bloomberg campaigns are confirmed to have bought 60-second ad slots for this year’s game, costing $10mm each.
Fox has confirmed they will “isolate” these ads, meaning other advertisers won’t have their spots be adjacent to the political ads. Many brands would like to avoid that association.
