Regardless of whether you are a die -hard super bowl fan or how I prefer to watch great owls, you have to admit: Super Bowl commercials are pretty great.
They are also quite expensive. And yet Fox, which holds the rights of Super Bowl Lix, sold all the advertising spots for the big game on February 9, 2025.
Let’s take a look at what goes into the most expensive television advertising in the world, how much you have cost in the entire history of the big game and which brands really come out of them.
Table of contents
How much does a super bowl display cost?
It is a little difficult to cost an average, not super bowl TV display, since the numbers can vary between a few hundred thousand to several million dollars. But we give this question a context:
- In 2024 (Kansas City Chiefs 25 – San Francisco 49ers 22), US and Canadian advertisers spent one An estimated 69 billion US dollars on TV. This is the GDP of Costa Rica.
- The Top 10 TV advertisers In the United States, we speak brands such as Geico, Burger King and T-Mobile spent one Average Of almost 7.5 million US dollars a week in 2023 (Chiefs 38 – Philadelphia Eagles 35).
- In advance -Primetime ads – These are the ads that you see in large TV networks between around 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. 19.12 million US dollars in 2024Which is actually a slight decrease in 2023.
Google’s 90 seconds from the Super Bowl 2020 (Tampa Bay Buccaners 31 -Chiefs 9) cost the Search giant 16.8 million US dollars (now 20.5 million US dollars).
If you drill a little further, we’ll take a look at the five most expensive 30-second commercials during the Broadcast TV season 2020/21, so A Statista report:
- NBC Sunday evening football: 783,718 USD per advertisement
- Fox Thursday evening football: 624,626 USD per advertisement
- Nbcs this is us: 476,352 USD per advertisement
- Nbcs The voice (Monday): 254,224 USD per ad
- Fox The masked singer: USD 225,764 per advertisement
The price rescue season is also for advertisers with a 30-second place during the 2024 Oscar ceremony with an average of 2024 2.2 million US dollars.
Amazon’s 90-second advertisement from 2020 cost $ 16.8 million (now $ 20.5 million).
In 2025, 30-second commercials sold for Super Bowl commercials for around $ 7 million per pop. That is almost 220% more than one place at the Oscars and almost 800% more than a regular season on Sunday evening football advertising.
And that’s just too Air The display – once. It is not for prominent spokesman who earn cool 1 -3 million US dollars. Premium advertising agency costs; Production and post-production costs; Even the marketing budget for the advertisements themselves.
In recent years, between 70 and 100 commercials have been broadcast during every Super Bowl game, which increases up to 40 minutes of commercials.
In 2012 (New York Giants 21 -New England Patriots 17) Super Bowl advertisements cost 3.5 million US dollars (now 4.9 million dollars). Chevrolet and OK GO’s musical Rube Goldsbergian Machine needed four months and cost an estimated $ 500,000 $ 1 million for production ($ 700,000 – USD 1.4 million).
Some brands snap Hollywood directors for the shooting, and while numbers are difficult to get, they can certainly assume that these directors have crept in some money:
- The Coen Brothers led the 2017 (Patriots 34 – Atlanta Falcons 28) Mercedes AD, a tribute to the biker film of counterculture Easy Rider.
- In the Super Bowl (Las Vegas Raiders 38-Washington, DC 9), an Orwellian display presented by Ridley Scott Apple’s first Macintosh computer.
- David Fincher headed a brading brad Pitt in Heineken’s “Beer Run” from 2005 (Patriots 24 – Eagles 21)
If you have only seen a super bowl, you will probably know the brands in the game – usually the biggest names in tech, food, computer and beer. Budweiser, Booking.com, Dunkin ‘and Volkswagen were favorites of the Super Bowl 2024.
Although Google and Amazon have the title for the most expensive Super Bowl display of all time, the king of Beers is the king of the Super Bowl display. Anheuser-Busch spent an estimated $ 470.5 million for its popular Budweiser ads between 1967 and 2020.
1999 (Denver Broncos 34 -Falcons 19) cost a 30 -second advertisement 1.6 million US dollars (today 3.1 million US dollars).
84 Lumber’s “The Journey Begins” spot cost 16.2 million US dollars (now 20.1 million US dollars), which makes it the most expensive Super Bowl ads in history.
How much can you buy with the costs of a super bowl display?
Have millions burned a hole in their pockets, but missed the deadline for a Super Bowl Lix display? Here is what you could still spend $ 7 million for:
* It is illegal to own an owl as a pet in the US number based on estimates from wildlife rescues and zoos that feed large horns.
What not Cost 7 million US dollars is software like Marketing hub or our Advertising software. You can create or manage your advertising campaigns, regardless of whether you address football fans or excellent owl enthusiasts.
How the Super Bowl ads prices have changed over time
The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 (Green Bay Packers 35 -Chiefs 10), and NBC and CBS calculated brands 37,500 US dollars for each advertisement or about 360,000 US dollars for today’s money.
A decade later, 1977 (Oakland Raiders 32 -Minnesota Vikings 14) gave brands of over 125,000 US dollars (today about 675,000 dollars). 1987 (Giants 39 – Broncos 20) cost 30 seconds of $ 600,000 ($ 1.7 million today); Until 1997 (Packers 35 – Patriots 21) it was $ 1.2 million (today $ 2.38 million).
The display of Betty White Snickers from 2010 (New Orleans Saints 31 -Indianapolis Colts 17) cost an estimated 4 to 5 million US dollar (5.8 to 7.3 million US dollars).
Another decade, another (millions) dollars (s). In 2007 (Colts 29 – Chicago Bears 17) the ads on average was USD $ 2.39 million (today $ 3.72 million); In 2017 it was $ 5 million (today 6.5 million US dollars).
Is a super bowl ad worth the costs?
The short answer: probably not. If you do not carry out a marketing for a brand with a positive enormous marketing budget, a single commercial of 7 million US dollars is not even on the table.
But for brands that have such expenses, the ROI can be important, with Super Bowl ads in the zeitgeist for a few weeks before and after the big game for a few weeks. (I don’t look at the Super Bowl – but I definitely watch everyone as soon as they are online.)
And 123 million US viewers looked at Super Bowl Lviii – secondly to the moon landing – and Almost a third of the spectators Say that the commercials are your favorite part of the game. Your 7 million dollar display gets one much Of their eye corner on it.
Accordingly Kantar research In 2021, “Super Bowl ads delivered an average return on investment (ROI) of $ 4.60 per trained dollar, with many brands in the double -digit range.”
Brad Adgate, who was described as an experienced media analyst, told the New York Times in 2024“During this time of fragmentation, the Super Bowl was what television used to be.”
It is probably the only true mass market live event of the year that almost reaches almost every population group. Beauty brands such as NYX and DOVE have entered the Super Bowl advertising game and lied to everyone who believes that football is not for girls, women or drag queens.
In A 2024 Interview with NPRMaria Rodas simply put the ROI of a super bowl display. Rodas is a marketing professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champay and a self-described “big fan” of Super Bowl ads-in your household is approved during the game, but not during the commercials.
Rodas said to NPR: “(Super Bowl ads are) like mini films. (Advertisers) set these big celebrities. The production value is crazy. And so suddenly $ 7 million are probably the smallest of what they spend compared to the rest (the money) that they design in creating them. “
“Having this almost undivided attention offers marketers an astonishing opportunity to create a story in order to really connect to a much deeper level with consumers.”
Lessons in Super Bowl Marketing
This connection is important whether you have a budget of $ 7 million or $ 700.
And many brands have found Alternatives to coat 7 million US dollars.
So do not despair if you make marketing for a modest or even a shoe budget – 7 million US dollars can buy more than 100 million viewers, but no amount of money can compensate for bad marketing.