The slumping economy is even impacting the advertising juggernaut that is the National Football League.
The Super Bowl, traditionally the highest rated program of the year, provides what is described in The Economist as “a ‘symbolic pulse-taking’ for the advertising industry every February.” This year, that pulse appears to be slowing. Even as the price of a 30-second spot in next year’s Super Bowl has risen to a record $3 million, there are indications that the economic climate has made even the surest thing from an advertising standpoint less attractive than it used to be.
NBC says that fewer than 10 spots remain open for February’s Super Bowl telecast, the first on the network this decade. Last year, FOX sold out its Super Bowl ad inventory by November. Additionally, one media buyer told ESPN that contrary to the reports of less than 10 spots being left, “at least 12 to 14 spots remain open” — and those who purchased spots before the start of the television season are now “looking to unload them.”
General Motors, one of the big three U.S. automakers facing financial turmoil, opted to not buy any advertising during the Super Bowl, after airing 11 ads during last year’s game. Currently, none of the big three have bought ad time during the game, though foreign carmakers Audi and Hyundai are on the ad roster.
Outside of the auto industry, FedEx, Garmin and Salesgenie.com are each “past Super Bowl advertisers who are ‘sitting out’ the country’s premiere sports event.”
More immediately, ad inventory “is available for many big national NFL games“, according to Mediapost. One “amazed” media buyer says “I was able to buy into [Sunday night’s] Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game pretty easily.”
Sports consultant Marc Ganis explains to the New York Times that “[s]ponsors are being much more discriminating with the use of their dollars now. Advertising money is going to decrease, if for no other reason than the auto industry has shrunk. The N.F.L. relies on auto, finance and real estate ? it is a mess.”
Advertiser recticence has already begun to affect the NFL bottom line, as the league will fall $50 million short of its revenue goal during the fiscal year, and had to lay off close to 15% of its staff earlier this week.
