Many Advertisers Shelve Super Bowl Game Plans

The Super Bowl may no longer be such a super buy for TV advertisers.

With 30-second spots selling for $800,000 and up, some sponsors of past Super Bowls are giving the cold shoulder to this year’s contest in Minneapolis. And CBS is in the uncomfortable position of hawking unsold slots less than two weeks before the Jan. 26 kickoff.

The biggest culprit seems to be the recession. Even though CBS reportedly lopped $50,000 off its initial asking price of $850,000, many penny-pinching advertisers are searching for less expensive ways to sell products. Some are turning away from TV’s image ads in favor of promotions that reach consumers in the mail--or at the store. Others, such as Coca-Cola, are undecided but are expected to skip the Super Bowl to concentrate on the Olympic Games.

Also influencing some advertisers are the hard facts: One new study by a top-rated ad researcher concludes that major Super Bowl advertisers may be wasting time--and money.

As a result, some of last year’s sponsors, including AT&T;, MasterCard and Visa, will be on the sidelines this year. Several Japanese car makers--such as Nissan and Toyota--that pumped millions of dollars into past Super Bowl campaigns have passed on the 1992 spectacle. One key advertiser, Frito-Lay, has made an end run on the Super Bowl, dropping its affiliation in favor of sponsoring a competing Super Bowl half-time entertainment show on rival Fox network.

Certainly, with an expected 120 million-plus viewers, the Super Bowl promises to be the most widely viewed event on American television in 1992. Several major advertisers have purchased big chunks of time to air new campaigns.

Anheuser-Busch will broadcast “Bud Bowl IV.” Pepsi will introduce a new ad slogan in a feel-good campaign with a “Field of Dreams” quality. Reebok is in Los Angeles this week filming its Super Bowl ad with two top decathletes. And Nike will twice air a 60-second spot called “Hare Jordan.” In the Nike ad, which mixes animation with live action, basketball great Michael Jordan and cartoon legend Bugs Bunny will take on some rough dudes on the court.

Still, there is a growing backlash this year to the high prices--and questionable sales results--of being a Super Bowl sponsor.

Super Bowl advertising is “a high-risk deal,” said Phillip Joanou, chairman of Dailey & Associates in Los Angeles. “I’ve been to Super Bowl parties where the commercials come on, and I have to get people to shut up so I can hear them.”

Some top researchers are also scaring advertisers away. “Buying lots of time on the Super Bowl doesn’t necessarily guarantee success,” said Scott C. Purvis, president of the highly respected Princeton, N.J., research firm Gallup & Robinson.

After last year’s Super Bowl, Gallup polled 382 viewers about which ads they remembered. L.A. Gear ran just one 30-second spot last year--compared to five minutes of Budweiser spots. Yet with 10 times the broadcast time of L.A. Gear, Purvis says, Budweiser achieved just four times the consumer awareness level of relative newcomer L.A. Gear.

For their part, Budweiser executives recognize that it is no longer easy getting attention during the Super Bowl. Last year’s “Bud Bowl III”--where Bud Light bottles battled the regular Budweiser bottles in an animated football contest--was generally regarded as a disappointment. So this year, Budweiser added a $1-million cash prize to be awarded to one viewer.

“We knew we had to fix this by either stepping up or stepping out,” said Thomas R. Sharbaugh, vice president of Budweiser brands.

But many have stepped out. Among the most interesting: Frito-Lay. Just two years ago, the maker of Doritos aired several humorous Super Bowl spots with comedian Jay Leno. But this year Frito-Lay is skipping the Super Bowl and instead sponsoring a 30-minute live show on Fox TV with the cast of “In Living Color.” The show will cut into Fox regular programming and begin airing the moment halftime begins. The show, which will have a Super Bowl tailgate party theme, will even have a clock in the right-hand corner of the screen that counts down until the second half of the game begins.

The man who thought up the idea is Jay Coleman, president of New York-based Entertainment Marketing & Communications International. “I felt 100 million people were going to the bathroom during halftime,” said Coleman. “Here is our opportunity to do some real ambush marketing.”

Adds Frito-Lay spokesman Tod Mackenzie: “For about the same amount it would cost us to air a couple of spots on the Super Bowl, we have exclusive title to a 30-minute program.”

Just two years ago, Nissan aired a Super Bowl spot showing a sports car outperforming a jet. This year, Nissan has no Super Bowl spot. “The business environment is too tough to make splashy purchases just so everyone feels good,” said Karen Gustafson, Nissan’s ad manager.

Indeed, in some cases, Super Bowl advertising has become an embarrassing battle of egos. Agency executives point out that some corporate chief executives want their ads to appear on the Super Bowl only in the hopes that it will earn them the admiration of peers and family.

Briefly . . .

The Los Angeles agency Cohen/Johnson has won the estimated $1.5-million ad account for Beverly Hills-based Southern California Savings . . . Saatchi & Saatchi DFS/Pacific of Torrance has won the $1.5-million account for the Portland Metro Toyota Dealers Assn. . . . Carpeteria, the Valencia floor covering retailer, has put the $2-million creative portion of its ad business under review . . . Mustang Marketing of Westlake Village has picked up ad projects for the Dodgers and MCA/Universal . . . The Culver City marketing design firm Mednick Group has landed eight new clients the past two months . . . The Los Angeles production company Bronco/Fox Productions has been formed to create film trailers and TV ads for films and videos . . . Integrated Media Strategies, a Santa Monica-based media buying and marketing firm, has been formed by ad veteran Ann Kalman . . . “What Clients Really Want From Their Agencies” is the topic of a breakfast seminar sponsored today by the Western States Advertising Agencies Assn. at Ma Maison Sofitel . . . Venice-based commercial director Joe Pytka is again directing several splashy Super Bowl spots for Pepsi and Nike . . . Godiva Chocolates is about to launch its first new ad campaign in 13 years.

SUPER BOWL, SUPER PRICES Beaten by the recession, some advertisers say they are skipping this year’s Super Bowl because prices have gotten out of hand. CBS has yet to sell all of the 50 time slots for the Jan. 26 game in Minneapolis.

YEAR COST 1985 $500,000 to 525,000 1986 $550,000 1987 $625,000 1988 $650,000 to 675,000 1989 $700,000 1990 $725,000 1991 $800,000 to 825,000 1992 $800,000 to 850,000