Fox Sports has announced that all its slots for Super Bowl advertising have been sold. However, this year, it took a fair while longer than usual.
In September, Fox said that 95 per cent of its ad inventory had been sold but refused to give any further updates on the progress of its sales.
However, just five days before the Big Day, Mark Evans, EVP of ad sales for the business said that the whole lot had finally been sold. According to Evans, the slow sales could be attributed to a series of “atypical” events, including the “implosion” of cryptocurrency brands, which made several notable splashes at last year’s game.
“There were a few unique situations between 95% sell out and being sold out that were atypical, to say the least, and one of which is the implosion of the crypto category,” Evans said.
One other reason for the eleventh-hour sell out is that, with a Super Bowl spot, once you have signed up and paid the fee, Fox will not give it back to you.
“Once you buy a Super Bowl unit, you own it. You can’t drop it or come out unless it’s extraordinary circumstances,” Evans added.
Waiting until the final moment shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that sources close to the negotiations reported that multiple 30-second spots were sold for more than US$7 million (AU$10 million). Though, it should be noted that some of those deals had been penned several years ago.
The majority of the 30-second spots sold in the mid-to-high US$6 million (around AU8.6 million) range.
“It would be crazy not to recognize the slowdown in the economy where people were fearful of a recession and all the headwinds that would potentially come with that,” said Evans.
There are still a “couple” of pre-game units that remain unsold and one-and-a-half units left during the first national ad break following the game.
However, while cryptocurrency ad sales bombed for the Super Bowl, alcohol ads sales have boomed. Anheuser-Busch gave up its 34-year exclusivity deal and its rival brewers have taken up the mantle.
