Super Bowl LV-19 Commercials: How COVID-19 Is Affecting Ads In This Year's Game

Super Bowl LV will quite literally be like no other Super Bowl due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. Tom Brady will be playing in the Super Bowl again (now an astonishing 18% of all Super Bowls ever played), Pepsi will be sponsoring the halftime show and more so than any event/program, viewers will tune-in to watch the entertaining and celebrity-filled Super Bowl commercials.

With all that we’ve endured this past year, America’s love for football bent but didn’t break. This season’s NFL TV ratings dipped 10% compared to 2019 (in part due to rescheduled games due to COVID-19), but still dominated as the #1 program on each of the network TV stations. That added extra pressure to CBS’ (this year’s broadcaster) ad sales team back in November and December when wary advertisers were hesitant to commit $5.5M for a 30-second spot citing fears such as the Super Bowl being canceled, but ultimately CBS sold out all their ad time (albeit later than any previous year) despite big brand defections.

Unfortunately, some of those defectors like veteran Super Bowl advertiser Coca-Cola are due to pandemic-induced business declines (half their sales come from stad

iums and theaters), but brands like Budweiser will nobly sit out the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years to shift that budget to support COVID-19 vaccine PSAs. However, this year will also see first-time Super Bowl advertisers that had a good year like DoorDash, Robinhood and Tik-Tok happily take those spots since Super Bowl commercials lead to positive business results.

While Super Bowl commercials are always good for laughs, some fear that this year’s spots could be boring as brands look to skirt controversy with so much of the country battered and divided after a tumultuous year. Alice Sylvester, partner at Sequent Partners, an ad effectiveness and metrics consultancy in New York, summarizes the creative amidst the backdrop of COVID-19 and politics perfectly; “I think the trend we will see is careful, cautious, not controversial.” Thankfully the spots that have dropped ahead of the game on Adweek’s Super Bowl LV Ad Tracker are still bringing the funny.

Perhaps more than the commercials, live event marketing activations suffered due to COVID-19 with brands opting for digital activations instead. Although the Buccaneers are making history as the first NFL team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, the city of Tampa Bay will not see a positive economic impact anywhere near that of Miami’s last year for Super Bowl LIV with many fewer people traveling to Tampa Bay this year and only 30% of Raymond James Stadium’s capacity allowed to attend for safety precautions. Despite the fewest seats ever available for a Super Bowl, ticket brokers report that ticket prices are trading lower than last year’s game (when they thought this would be the most expensive ever) with many customers citing the lack of typical celebrity-filled hospitality events in Tampa Bay.

More so than the outcome of the game, the big question on marketer’s minds is just how different viewership will be for Super Bowl LV, will it stay the same with all the changes this

season? While NFL ratings increased for the two conference title games compared to the regular season, ratings for premier sporting events like the past World Series, NBA Finals and college football national championship game all dropped to record lowers despite most Americans consuming more content during stay-at-home orders. And with Super Bowl parties being discouraged across most the country, does that mean more people might watch the game from home, or will the game lose some its appeal without all the typical pageantry? Personally, I would never bet against the NFL.