Companies That Waste Money On Super Bowl Ads: 24/7 Wall St.

From 24/7 Wall St.: A 30-second ad spot in this year's Super Bowl costs an average of $3.5 million. That's an 84 percent increase from 10 years ago and the highest amount advertisers have ever had to pay. While that is quite the price hike, it is in line with the growth in TV audience, which has just about doubled over the past decade. But despite spending this much to reach such a massive audience at once, the results are rarely impressive.

Read: The Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl

Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising, based on 24/7 Wall St.'s estimate. The top 10 spenders were responsible for more than one-third of that. And one company, Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, spent almost $250 million over the past 10 years on Super Bowl ads, or a whopping one-tenth of all Super Bowl ad spending.

24/7 Wall St. ranked total spending for all of the companies that advertised during the Super Bowl in the past decade. An analysis of the top spenders reflects how bad this investment can be. While some, such as Hyundai and Toyota have improved market share over that time, most have not. Based on total ad spending, product failures, change in market share, share price and sales, we identified the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl, including mega brands such as Coke, Budweiser, GM and Ford.

Based on 24/7 Wall St.'s analysis of Super Bowl ad spending, the top spenders fall into four major categories: automotive, film, food, including snacks and fast food, and beverages. Four of the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers are auto companies. Another four of the 10 are food and beverage manufacturers. Three movie studios are in the top 25.

Because Super Bowl ads are used by a small number of industries, many companies in those industries are forced to advertise just to keep up. Most of the top 10 spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, McDonald's, the indisputable market leader, spent less than half that amount and is not a top 10 spender. Similarly, E*Trade, well-known for the talking baby campaign, spent more than any other online brokerage firm, yet remains fourth in the industry.

Also Read: AMR – Saving Corporate America one Bankruptcy at a Time

24/7 Wall St. tabulated all of the commercials from the past 10 Super Bowls, as archived by Adland, the "world's largest archive of Super Bowl commercials." Using that data, 24/7 calculated the number of commercials each company bought, as well as their length, including any available pregame, postgame and prime advertising commercials. To estimate the total amount each company spent on Super Bowl advertising in the past decade, we used the average costs of a 30-second commercial spot each year and the total number of minutes of advertising time recorded by Adland.

These are the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

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Comments

[nitroglycerine19]

04:11 PM on 02/24/2012

Though the amount of money companies spend on these commercials is pretty ridiculous, the research doesn't show that it was wasted because it doesn't link the ad to change in the company's performance. It any of these companies increased sales because of the ads, then whether or not they performed poorly elsewhere/overall they didn't waste their money on the commercials.

[elsquibbs]

08:45 AM on 02/09/2012

Right, it's such a waste even though we're on here discussing those same ads a week later.

[johnweythek]

07:15 AM on 02/09/2012

Coca Cola doesn't want to make money on super bowl ads. They want to saturate the world with their image. Coca Cola gets to civilization before clean water these days. And it's because you see them everywhere. Same way McDonalds really just wants to own TONS of land. Some locations bleed money just to be seen (see: every business with a location at Times Square).

[tonylaz]

11:57 PM on 02/08/2012

I remember very little to none of any Anheuser-Busch commercials save the TV show, now on CD, called "John Wayne's Tribute to America". A flag waving history lesson interspersed with views of a shiny bright red and white delivery wagon pulled by four pairs of well groomed one ton Clydesdale horses. Makes me want Busch as my first choice in beer

[NevaforLeadership]

02:23 PM on 02/06/2012

"Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, spent almost $250 million over the past 10 years on Super Bowl ads."

A fair amount, with no gain, that could have gone into employee salary increases, benefits, incentives or training.

[jflorish]

04:42 PM on 02/06/2012

No gain? I didn't know you were part of their accounting and marketing departments. It's funny how everyone thinks they are experts on companies books without having any knowledge on the subject.

[NevaforLeadership]

04:58 PM on 02/06/2012

Indeed, you have no idea who I am or what knowledge, experience or background I have.

[NevaforLeadership]

02:20 PM on 02/06/2012

"Because Super Bowl ads are used by a small number of industries, many companies in those industries are forced to advertise just to keep up. Most of the top 10 spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years."

Big mistake for those companies to try to keep up. Old interruption advertising. Old thinking.

[hdgoose]

10:24 AM on 02/06/2012

The older ads were a lot better. It seems no one can be offended these days. My favorite from a couple years ago; the bud lite sleigh ride where the gal is holding a candle; the horse farts and blows up in her face. That was hysterical! They need to make those kind of commercials again; something thats edgey; now theyre so lame.

[AskandThink]

09:27 AM on 02/06/2012

As wasteful as this all is IMHO this IS where the Corporate “voice” BELONGS….
NOT in OUR political campaigns.

Corporations have a voice…. They call it advertising. AND they get a TAXPAYERS break on it.
ENOUGH already! Bad enough I have to put up with the bare minimum of their tooting of their horns, double and triple and quadruple have to pay to do so but then….ALSO be injured by their insidious STEALING of my votes…?!

FAKE PEOPLE deserve FAKE voices…. ONLY!

Let’s bring this to the table!
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=f1c2660f-54b9-4193-86a4-ec2c39342c6c

[racegal77]

07:29 AM on 02/06/2012

Holy Smokes! Lot of money been spent ( 2002 - 2011 ) Yikes!

[Seattlewkr]

12:32 AM on 02/06/2012

Warner Bros. can spend gazillions on the ads, while the hourly workers in theaters showing their movies make poverty wages. Real cool setup. NOT

[clarisechi]

02:24 PM on 02/06/2012

That could change if actors would stand up and push for the wages of the theater workers and accept drastic drop in their fees. They can afford it. It would only be "Fair".

[Phate James]

12:12 AM on 02/06/2012

Its nice that coke can blow all that money on commercials for the superbowl, must be all the extra money they made off the consumers by cutting cases from 24 cans to 20 but still charging the same prices!

[Seattlewkr]

12:33 AM on 02/06/2012

No kidding -- and the public eats it all up, ads and all, and buys lots more.

PATHETIC

[whenicyouucme]

12:05 AM on 02/06/2012

funny thing is these companies do not pay their employees enough money. Yet they have millions to waste on super bowl ads. ridiculous

[gerbersmail]

10:27 PM on 02/05/2012

This was the worst Super Bowl commercials is recent memory. Nothing memorable or anything people will be talking about around the water cooler tomorrow.

[Janine547]

10:09 PM on 02/05/2012

When you consider the cost of the average commercial and you factor in the numbers of those who watch the SuperBowl (100 Million) it averages out to about 3 cents per person. Not exactly what I'd consider a waste of money.

[shradt]

06:50 PM on 02/05/2012

WOW! What are people thinking. This wasted money could save thousands of pets lives,put food on the table for the underpriviliged out of work families, but we say wow after millions are spent on idiot ads....

[jflorish]

04:43 PM on 02/06/2012

Not wasted, its paying off or they wouldn't keep doing it.