In a November 14 Wall Street Journal article with Tom McGovern, the head of the Optimum Sports division of the media buying agency Omnicom, it was noted that Tom has negotiated 2008 Super Bowl ad spots for Pepsi, FedEx and Universal Studios. I haven’t seen any announcements directly from any of these companies.
The article indicates that Tom and his firm is responsible for the purchase of about 15 Super Bowl ad slots accounting for almost a quarter of the entire ad inventory for the game. Only 2 spots remain in the game and Fox is leveraging this demand by driving the cost up from $2.7 million to $3 million for the last spots.
Apparently the movie studios are responsible for creating this demand. Neil Mulcahy of Fox Sports was quoted in an AdWeek stating that the movie category has five times as many spots as last year. The 2007 game had ads for 3 films - Wild Hogs, Meet the Robinsons, and Hannibal Rising.
Fox has added some attractive new benefits for advertisers this year. One of them is a televised pre-game red carpet arrival area for celebrities featuring on camera interviews with Ryan Seacrest. This additional exposure is motivating movie advertisers to get involved.
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