A Super Bowl overtime may be intense on the field, but it’s got nothing on what happens behind the scenes with the ads.
In an increasingly fragmented viewership landscape, Super Bowl commercials are more coveted than ever, with Fox selling several ads over the $8 million mark for the first time this year. And that historic demand doesn’t stop in regulation, with companies already vying for potential overtime spots in the upcoming Big Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9.
Overtime spots typically go for slightly less than the in-game ads, according to a source familiar with the matter; however, Fox leaves one or two potential ad slots open for the brands who want one last chance to get in the game.
“If there are 10 units to sell in overtime, we’ll sell eight in advance,” Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales at Fox Sports, told ADWEEK.
For those last one or two slots, the Super Bowl turns into a brand bidding war.
“If it gets close late in the game, there literally becomes like a stock market bidding war for the last spot or two for advertisers who want to get in to get the benefit of that huge rating,” Evans said. “We let those last one or two units not be sold so we can have a real-time marketplace in the fourth quarter.”
According to Evans, to help facilitate the bids, Fox has salespeople sitting with its biggest clients, whether they are in the suites or in the stadium.
“It’s happened in other Super Bowls that we could have gone to overtime but just didn’t. You’re still negotiating it,” Evans said. “So it becomes this crazy frenzy of phone calls and communication with our truck to make sure we have the commercial, that it’s cleared, and all those other things.”
And approvals are no small task. Evan said it’s a three-level process: Fox has its own standards and practices, major advertisers can’t try to sneak in other brands that didn’t buy into the game, and the NFL has to see and approve every commercial.