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CBS Struggling to Sell Super Bowl Spots, Advertisers Keeping Quiet

With three weeks to go until the Super Bowl, only 13 advertisers have admitted to having purchased spots during the big game. Meanwhile, CBS has sold about 70 percent of the game’s inventory, with perhaps 16 slots left to sell.

Some advertisers admittedly avoided the Super Bowl last year because of the high price tag and the unswervingly critical eye the media and the public place upon Super Bowl ad creative. This year, even some of those advertisers who have purchased ads during the big game are avoiding pre-game hype, writes AdAge.

The majority of the 13 advertisers who will advertise, such as AIG, FedEx, CareerBuilder, GoDaddy, Honda, Snickers, Nationwide Insurance and Taco Bell, have been quiet about their purchase (though it’s difficult to believe that GoDaddy will remain mum), while not a single pharmaceutical, movie-studio or telecom brand has publicly announced its presence.

The easy answer, according to the article, is the price. With this year’s cost of a 30-second spot pegged at $2.6 million, CMOs may be shying away from Super Bowl publicity as accountants and “procurement types” breathe down their necks.

The other challenge, of course, is the potential to be booed off the screen. “$2.6 million is a lot to spend if the creative is panned,” Andrew Donchin, director-national broadcast, Carat, is quoted as saying. “It’s a very powerful vehicle, but you better have something that’s attention-grabbing-better than ordinary.”

In fact, polls such as USA Today’s Ad Meter, which asks consumers to rate the game’s commercials the next day, has actually become a major factor in advertisers’ decision-making processes, writes Adweek.

Perhaps that is why so many spots are still left available this close to the game. “There are always Super Bowl units still available at this point, but this year there seem to be more left than the norm,” one media exec is quoted as saying. The Adweek articles says that point of view was echoed among many who were contacted for the story.
While they admit that it is getting to be a harder sell, both John Bogusz, CBS exec vp, sports sales and marketing, and Tony Taranto, senior vp of NFL sales at CBS, say the network is right where it was inventory-wise as when it televised the Super Bowls in ‘01 and ‘04.