GM Punting on Super Bowl
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After losing to the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, the Detroit Lions are 0-3 and look to be a lock to miss the Super Bowl for the XLIIIth time.
General Motors, another dented Motor City icon, won’t be playing in the big game either come February.
The world’s largest automaker said today that it would take a pass on the world’s biggest advertising venue in yet another move aimed at saving money. GM, an ‘official sponsor’ of the NFL and one of the big game’s biggest advertisers, said it would confine its promotional spending to the considerably less expensive -- and less viewed -- pre- and post-game shows.
“We’ve changed our plans and reduced our spending on a couple of big-ticket items,” GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato said.
Big ticket indeed. NBC announced in May that it was raising the price of a 30-second ‘in game’ spot to $3 million -- up from the $2.7 million Fox charged this year. Last week, NBC said 85% of the commercial sports for the Feb. 1 game were sold.
GM has called a timeout on Super Bowl ads before, Cusinato said, opting not to participate in 2001 and for a couple of years during the 1990s. Last year, the company ran a spot for its new GMC Yukon hybrid SUV.
But experts noted that it’s a sign of GM’s current struggles that it would abandon such a high-profile opportunity. (Four of the 10 most-watched TV shows of all time are Super Bowls. The highest-rated game was Super Bowl XVI in 1982 between the 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals.)
‘It’s a risky move, but I don’t think they have much choice right now given their financial condition,’ said Eli Portnoy, chief brand strategist for Orlando, Fla.-based Portnoy Group.
GM has made other cutbacks in its promotional spending, deciding not to advertise during Sunday night’s Emmy awards broadcast or next year’s Academy Awards show. It also canceled the big party it has thrown every January at the Detroit auto show.
Cusinato said the automaker plans to spend its ad dollars mainly when it is launching a new vehicle, which won’t be the case in February. (That apparently doesn’t rule out ads for vehicles such as the Chevy Volt, which is supposed to debut, um, in 2010.)
Now, if they could just do something about that Lions defense . . .
-- Martin Zimmerman
Chart data from TNS Media Intelligence