Before this year, what company had the most expensive Superbowl
Commercial?
I *think* the cost was app. 3 million USD and it was probably paid by
one of the 'dot-com' companies.

jeffomgreen..

Thanks for the great question.  As you know, advertising for the
Superbowl is the most expensive adversting space there is on
television.  Here is a breakdown of how much an average 30 second spot
cost in all each of the Superbowls:

1967 $42,000
1968 $54,000 
1969 $67,500
1970 $78,200
1971 $72,000
1972 $86,000
1973 $103,500
1974 $107,000
1975 $110,000
1976 $125,000
1977 $162,000
1978 $185,000
1979 $222,000
1980 $275,000
1981 $324,300 
1982 $345,000
1983 $400,000
1984 $450,000
1985 $500,000
1986 $550,000
1987 $575,000
1988 $600,000
1989 $675,000
1990 $700,000
1991 $800,000
1992 $800,000
1993 $850,000
1994 $900,000
1995 $1,000,000
1996 $1,100,000
1997 $1,200,000
1998 $1,300,000
1999 $1,600,000
2000 $2,100,000
2001 $2,050,000
2002 $1,900,000
Source:Ad Age
http://www.adage.com/page.cms?pageId=684

There are 30 minutes of ad sales, with the pricing for the 30 second
spots varying from quarter to quarter and spot to spot.  Pregame ads
and fourth-quarter ads are the least expensive. Ads that appear in the
first half are the most expensive, and ads in the third quarter are
priced in between.
In the 2000 Superbowl, a handful of ads sold for $3 million for 30
second spot.

However, the Brittney Spears, 90 second Pepsi ad in last years
Superbowl cost Pepsi $5.8 million.

Thanks again for your question and if you need any additional
clarification, please let me know.

Regards,

-THV

Search Strategy:
most expensive superbowl commercial

References:

Super Bowl XXXVI ads: David Verklin
http://cgi1.usatoday.com/mchat/20020201004/tscript.htm

Superbowl-Ads
http://www.superbowl-ads.com/articles_2000/html_files/SB.ad.rates.hit.3.mill.html

Bud Light rules the advertising Super Bowl
http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/sb02/2002-02-04-ad-meter-bud.htm

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Request for Answer Clarification by jefffromgreen-ga on 02 Feb 2003 19:51 PST

Wow! Great work.  I'll still rate you highly if you don't answer this
(I understand this is only a $2 question ;)), but is there any
indication what the highest 30 second spot cost and who sponsored it?
Jeff From Green

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Clarification of Answer by tar_heel_v-ga on 02 Feb 2003 20:16 PST

Jeff..

Thanks for the comments.  I have searched and searched (and will
continue to do so) for the most expensive 30 second spot.  I have seen
$3 million mentioned several times, but it appears the ad firms and
companies don't like to say how much they paid.  I will keep looking,
but right now, it doesn't look very promising.

-THV

This was great work, but the answer that the radio host was looking
for was from the Guinness Book of World Records... which (erroneously)
reports that the 1984 Apple MacIntosh is the most expensive ad.  They
need to get with the times...lets see...1.6 million (including
production) versus 5.8 million????

The problem with an exact answer is that the amounts shown are the
listed rates. At the beginning of the Tv season, the big ad agencies
and the networks get together for what they call "the upfront."
Without going into great detail, giant, giant advertisers like GM (who
spends BILLIONS and the auto industry) generally get to go first and
buy up ad time for the next season at a bulk rate. If they want to
book SuperBowl ad space right then and there, they will get a discount
from the listed rate - however, like any good negotiations - there's
the waiting game versus the right time to book. Most big advertisers
also lock in a clause that they will pay the lowest rate (if the price
drops but with the execption of probably two Super Bowls in the late
1990's - that almost never happens). During the heyday of the dot.com,
not only were people buying out early, some people turnmed around and
sold that time they bought earlier to a dot.com at a profit. So,
basically, the last advertiser or two in the 1999 or 2000 SuperBowl
probably paid that $3 million for 30 seconds ... (when was the dot.com
heyday - forgot already :-)

And for production, that's also subjective, Pepsi may have spent $5.8
million on production but how many version and how many times did that
ad run? A couple thousand times? - the amoritized cost of that spot is
pretty low. The Apple ad ran only three times I believe (once in late
1983 on an Idaho local station at 2 AM to qualifiy for the Clios or
something like that, the SuperBowl and I believe one time after that).
So, $1.6 divided by 3 is a lot higher than $5.8 divided by a couple
thousand. But again, are you talking gross costs or amoritized costs?