NBC, hosting its first Super Bowl in a decade, fit in a total of 84 in-game spots from the opening kickoff to the final whistle, totaling just over 45 minutes in ad time.
The past four years’ Super Bowls (which aired on NBC, Fox, CBS, and ABC respectively) now occupy the top four slots in terms of most in-game commercial time in the game’s history, according to TNS Media, the industry analysis company that put together a Super Bowl ad report.
General Electric, NBC’s parent company, contributed 2:30 of advertising time to this year’s Super Bowl. This is more than the parent companies of Fox and CBS had in the past two Super Bowls, but much less than the 4:30 the Disney-owned entities had in the 2006 ABC-televised game. Due to the tough ad climate, some had speculated GE would have to step in and buy up NBC’s remaining Super Bowl spots.
Movies were the dominant ad category again this year, accounting for seven minutes of ad time. Automotive products came in second with 5:30 of ad time, but auto manufacturers themselves accounted for only three minutes of advertising, down from last year.
Pepsi Co. bought up the most ad time, clocking in at 5:30 for eight total spots. Coke also had spots but held back from promoting its non-soda brands, while Pepsi ran spots for Gatorade and Sobe Life.
TNS also ran analysis on the most talked about ads in the first day-and-a-half following the Super Bowl. Movie spots dominated the post-game discussion with the commercial for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen leading the way. Anheuser-Busch was tops for most-talked about non-movie spots. Despite winning the USA Today ad voting, the Doritos commercial featuring a man getting a snow globe in his crotch, was the second most-discussed non-movie commercial.
