How Did the Super Bowl Fare In a Sagging Economy? - February 3, 2009

Did you team come out on top in the Super Bowl? If it wasn’t your favorite team that was playing, chances are some people did without the most anticipated football game of the year. preliminary readings from the nation’s top research firm for television, Nielson Media Research, stated that this year’s game was more than likely down from last year’s peak viewers, but was on pace to equal the previous two games.

Early Monday morning, Nielson posted that the Pittsburgh-Arizona game received a 42.1 rating and a 65 share according to the research group. That amounts to just under the previous year’s game between the N.Y. Giants and the New England Patriots received a 44.7 rating, being the most watch game in Super Bowl history.

Within the rating system itself, each rating point represents approximately 1.145 million households. The shares means that 65% of all monitored television sets that were turned on during the same time slot of the football game was tuned to the game. Although no official number has been released, Nielson estimates that some 90 million Americans watched this year’s Super Bowl game.

However, with the economy the way it is, how much money were companies willing to invest in commercials during the game? NBC, which is owned by General Electric Co. (GE), stated that total revenues generated from commercials equated to more than $261M, a new record for the sporting event.

For those companies related to the glitz and glamour of the Super Bowl, this year was less memorable than previous years. Playboy Enterprises Inc. (PLA), which usually throws a game-day bash, didn’t have their annual party due to the economic downturn. Sports Illustrated, which has seen advertising revenues drop more than 6% from last year, didn’t put on their annual bash as well.

"Based on the number of this year's Super Bowl-related events which have either been canceled or where cutbacks have been announced, it is clear that businesses have found it difficult to ignore their more immediate operating uncertainties and investor demands - even at the expense of one of America's most popular events," a PricewaterhouseCoopers analyst, Robert Canton commented.

Others throwing their Super Bowl parties saw dramatic declines in attendees invited as the economy pressured them to reduce the overall expense for the parties thrown. Maxim magazine reduced their size to only 1,000 guests, down more than half of last year’s party, due mainly to the publication’s decline in ad revenues falling more than 5% in 2008.

Additionally, Coors Light, which is owned by Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP), reduced their party size this year as well, even after being the official beer for the Super Bowl back in 2002. Although the company posted solid earnings in the 3Q of 2008, the company opted to reduce their party size and make those that were invited feel more important with the intimate setting.

Furthermore, there were other areas of business that the weakened economy had an impact on that was related to the Super Bowl. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official confirmed that there were smaller amounts of corporate jets flying into Tampa this year, than in previous Super Bowl weekends, as companies just couldn’t fund the expensive trips amid a lagging economy.

With fewer corporate parties landing, the number of corporate travel cars were reduced this year as well. The main providers of those vehicles came from General Motors Corp. (GM), which contributed such models as Cadillac and Chevrolet. With all that has happened over the past year within the auto industry, GM was looking forward to some positive exposure, didn’t even purchase one ad spot during this year’s game.

Although the much anticipated game was great for the sports fan, companies competing to get those all important dollar from the fans, seemed to be lagging this year. Companies that did spend the capital to reach out to those fans, figured that the nearly 100 million viewers were well worth the company’s expenditures.

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