Why isn’t footy finals weekend the Super Bowl for advertisers?
Over 113 million Americans sat in front of their television sets this February and watched the Super Bowl – the second-highest television audience of all time.
If you’ve ever watched an NFL game, you’ll know that, for every 12 seconds of blistering, on-field action, there is approximately 45 minutes of faffing about on the sidelines. This is when the commercials play for the television audience – and when a lot of viewers start paying attention.
Many, many people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials – and they are richly rewarded for it.
Production budgets are blown out to filmic proportions, and casting follows suit, with the likes of John Travolta, Zach Braff, Adam Driver, Alicia Silverstone, Ben Affleck, Serena Williams, Dave Grohl, Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph all appearing in ads that premiered during this year’s Super Bowl.
Comedy is usually the order of the day – it’s a very entertaining lineup for what is traditionally meant to be a respite from the actual entertainment .
And why not? The Super Bowl is television advertising’s night-of-nights, the big game. You could even say that it’s the Super Bowl of the advertising world.
Why isn’t this the case in Australia?
Especially on a weekend like the one we just experienced, where the country’s two biggest sporting leagues have their grand finals across two consecutive days. It seems like the perfect time to premiere a splashy commercial – especially with millions of captive eyeballs.
This year, a 30-second slot during the Super Bowl cost an average of US$7 million (A$10.84m).
While the local networks are hesitant to reveal just how much they charge for advertising during the NRL and AFL, we know the Northern Territory Government paid $403,406 for a sixty-second commercial during the 2018 AFL Grand Final.
That was five years ago, so the price is likely to have crept up since then. It’s a lot of money to be spending on a commercial.
So why not do everything possible to ensure all eyes are on your McCain’s oven chips advert, instead of in the kitchen, scanning the back of the freezer for another brand of oven chips?
Nine, Seven, the NRL, and the AFL all need this to happen too.
Last year’s grand finals in both codes had the lowest free-to-air viewing figures in the five mainland capitals since OzTAM started tracking ratings in 2001.
The AFL on Seven drew an average audience of 2.18 million, while the NRL drew an average of just 1.67 million.
Include regional areas and streaming viewers, and these figures jump to 3.07m and 2.76m – the second-worst result since 2003.
When NRL was at its television peak, back in 2005, the grand final drew 4.1 million, nationally.
So, that looks like the ceiling for viewers.
But what if you throw in all those people who don’t like rugby league or Australian Rules football, but do enjoy comedy sketches, and celebrities, and being part of the cultural conversation inasmuch as that conversation doesn’t involve football, except as an adjunct to Grand Final Weekend, which is suddenly not about football at all, and now all about watching Guy Sebastian plank for a Jeans West advert?
What about this audience?
Suddenly, there are millions more viewers, which means a thirty-second commercial can command more money. The football leagues will be able to ask more for the viewing rights. It will even improve the quality of the stadium experience, because the third thing that the Super Bowl is all about is the halftime show – and the pre-game and half-time entertainment at the NRL and the AFL are traditionally terrible.
Whether it’s Jess Mauboy lip synching at the NRL, or Meat Loaf entering the stadium on a motorcycle before murdering a medley of his classics – our entertainment simply doesn’t cut it. It’s clear the artists can never hear themselves perform, and the slushy sound that comes from the inadequate sound systems is usually tossed about by the wind before it whimpers out to the far ends of the stadium. The result is off-key, out-of-time muck – regardless of whether you are a world class performer, or the Neighbours cast wailing the national anthem (yes, this once happened).
With record-breaking television audiences, suddenly the $500,000 the AFL paid for Meat Loaf will seem like chump change. We’ll be able to fly over Rihanna – or at least pay for her hologram to duet with Barnesy.
The musical entertainment will be taken seriously, because the whole package is now a whole package. Sporting fans are diverse, but if you can attract music fans and sporting fans and comedy fans and fans of celebrities and fans of great art done well, even if it is primarily designed to sell furniture – then suddenly the viewership smashes through that previously-set roof of 4.1 million – much like the glass elevator at the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
I hope you enjoyed the football this weekend, regardless of which code you follow. And, next season, as you watch the boring old Harvey Norman commercials, try to imagine Guy Sebastian planking alongside that five-piece dining set, and think of the possibilities.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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