Most People Watched the Super Bowl with as Much Interest or More in the Commercials

While many football fans across the country turned on the Super Bowl, it turns out the game isn't the only reason most people watch. According to a press release from Hanon McKendry, 57 of the American public that tune in to watch the Super Bowl actually tune with an equal or greater interest in the commercials that are shown during the game. The commercials are so popular, that many websites exist just to show you internet videos of the Super Bowl commercials after the game ends.

According to the study conducted by Harris Interactive for Hanon McKendry, 68 percent of American adults were expected to watch this year's Super Bowl. Of the expected audience of 90 million adults, 19 percent according to the study were only tuning in to see the commercials. Another 38 percent responded that they were interested in the game and the commercials equally.

That might be a little surprising to some, especially when you consider the fact that the commercials are quite often leaked to websites before the Super Bowl. This year the website ULinkx had twenty three different Super Bowl commercials on the website up to a week before the game. Included in this list of commercials were 7 different commercials by Anheuser-Busch.

According to a New York Times article, Anheuser-Busch routinely purchases more Super Bowl airtime for commercials every year. This year is no exception. The difference according to the article is that Anheuser-Busch will only be showing commercials for Budweiser and Bud Light, and will not produce commercials for their other brands of beer.

According to the New York Times article, this year's average price for a Super Bowl commercial was $2.7 million for a 30 second article. Last year Anheuser-Busch reportedly purchased $23.9 million worth of commercials according to the article. The second highest spender last year was PepsiCo which spent just under half of that at $11.9 million.

With the popularity of the internet, most Super Bowl commercials only reach a small amount of their total audience during the Super Bowl. Last year the Anheuser-Busch commercials were viewed a total of 30 million times. The New York Times article indicates that 87 percent of that exposure was in the seven dates after the Super Bowl itself. So don't worry, if you missed a commercial this year you will be able to find it on one of many websites, or on television extensively in the week after the Super Bowl itself.

SOURCES:

New York Times.com. "Anheuser-Busch Pushes the Big Beers for the Super Bowl ".
URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/media/22adco.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Prnewswire.com. "Super Bowl Ads Take Equal Billing to Game in 2008 According to Hanon McKendry Survey".
URL:http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=KFSNSVY.story&STORY=/www/story/01-31-2008/0004747337&EDATE=THU+Jan+31+2008,+05:30+PM

ULinkx.com. "2008 Super Bowl Ads Preview".
URL:http://www.ulinkx.com/playlist/2008_super_bowl_ads_preview?page=2