The Super Bowl: A Marketing Course of Its Own

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For business students, there was a lot more to see at the Super Bowl than football.The Super Bowl is a marketing bonanza, and billions of dollars are made as a result of this annual major sporting event.

More than 140 million Americans watched the big game, and that figure is about the same every year no matter who the combatants are on the field. That translates into 40 percent of all households. Add to that more than 750 news outlets, giving the championship game tons of free publicity. So if you tie a business or product into Super Sunday, you can get quite a ride.

The National Retail Federation reported that more than $5.5 million was spent on food and merchandise for this year’s game. That means there’s a lot of money made by smart retailers and marketers who found a way for their business to play off the Super Bowl.

So this is where those marketing classes come in handy. For instance, with the media making the Super Bowl a larger-than-life happening, electronics marketers went after the big bucks by convincing folks that there was no better way to watch the big game than on a big-screen TV. For several weeks before the game, big electronics chains ran TV commercials showing happy fans watching a football game on a new, large-screen, high-definition TV, and sales for those TVs rose significantly.

There were plenty of other marketing coups that helped make Super Bowl XLII a big win for business. And not everything was a big-ticket item.

Make note of these clever marketing ploys:

• A group of florists in New Jersey got together and ran newspaper ads, offering Super Bowl bouquets of flowers that male fans could buy for their sweethearts to soften the blow of another full Sunday of football.
• For Super Bowl parties, there were specially printed paper napkins, paper plates, cups, tablecloths, streamers, even centerpieces with the Super Bowl and team emblems emblazoned on them. There were also mylar balloons, in the shape of footballs, with the Super Bowl logo on them. Your theme party was complete.
• There were souvenirs galore, and not just at the stadium where the game was played. All kinds of retailers got in on the action–grocery stores, bookstores, even pharmacies were all selling Super Bowl souvenirs, including programs, T-shirts, caps, buttons, blankets, and bumper stickers. Many of those retail outlets sold the souvenirs as a way of getting customers in the store, discounting souvenir prices if you bought a minimum dollar amount of their core products.
• Many manufacturers tried to distinguish their products by paying for permission to print the Super Bowl logo on their packaging, making these products stand out from the competition and a natural fit for the big game. Some manufacturers even created special Super Bowl point-0f-sale displays for their products that were placed in supermarkets and discount chain stores.
• Food. We can’t forget the food. Nachos, subs, pizzas, buffalo wings, potato chips, pretzels, soda and beer–all fan favorites at Super Bowl parties. Takeouts and delis were buzzing.
• The Wing Zone, a national buffalo wings fast food chain with stores in 25 states, reported selling 1 million wings for Super Sunday. The business jumped right on the back of the Super Bowl and ran ads encouraging fans to pre-order their wings. Fans could pick up their wings, but if they ran out, the store had a delivery service all set up to rush a new supply over to any Super Bowl parties. Now if some clever marketer can only thing of something to do with the rest of the chicken.