Why No Coors Commercials during Super Bowl XLIV?
Posted: 2/17/2010 4:31:30 PM by
Jon Kander | with 0 comments
Hi all,
My name is Jon Kander. I am an alumnus of Wake Forest University for undergrad and Ohio University’s MBA/MSA program. I have worked in IEG’s Valuation Services department since graduating from Ohio and am brand new to the IEG blogosphere. You can read a little more about me in the brief bio on the right.
Watching this year’s Super Bowl, I found myself wondering one thing – where are all the Coors commercials? Obviously, the price tag for a 30-second advertisement is steep; however, when Coors is paying an estimated $100 million per year in NFL-themed advertising, promotions and other team sponsorships to be the official beer of the NFL, it needs to make sure it is seen by the 106.5 million people watching the NFL’s marquee game on TV, right?
Looking further into it, I remembered that Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive Super Bowl alcohol advertiser through 2012 (and has been since 1989). Coors’ inability to advertise during the Super Bowl has to truly hamper its ability to drive awareness of its NFL partnership. In a broadcast that is watched as much for the commercials as for the game itself, Coors faces a significant competitive disadvantage to Anheuser-Busch in associating its brand with the NFL. While I realize there are other factors that impact Coors’ awareness as an NFL sponsor (e.g., popularity of each respective brand), a June 2009 Turnkey Sports and Entertainment survey noted that 43.9 percent and 47.4 percent of avid and casual fans, respectively, believed Anheuser-Busch was the official beer sponsor of the NFL. Meanwhile, only 26.1 percent and 10.9 percent of avid and casual fans, respectively, thought Coors was the league’s official beer.
Anheuser-Busch was an NFL sponsor in 2001, before it was outbid for the rights by Coors. Eight years later and Coors still has not driven a great deal of awareness of its NFL sponsorship. Is Coors doing enough to promote its official sponsorship of the NFL? Anheuser-Busch spent more than double that of Coors in advertising during NFL games. In addition, A-B has sponsorship deals with nearly every team in the league and has ad exclusivity in the Super Bowl through 2012.
I obviously was not present during negotiations between Coors and the NFL as they extended their partnership in 2005. However, if I was at the negotiation table, I would have ensured that Coors had the opportunity to advertise during the Super Bowl. Instead, Coors left the door open for Anheuser-Busch to continue to receive category exclusivity in Super Bowl advertising through 2012, which A-B did in 2006.
Obviously, television advertising is only one part of the marketing mix, and Coors has found other means to promote the corporate sponsorship around the Super Bowl (e.g., ticket promotions, gaming applications). But, when Coors is completely precluded from having any presence during the NFL’s (if not the world’s) biggest event of the year, that is a very large gap in Coors’ NFL partnership agreement.
Did anybody else notice Coors’ absence during the Super Bowl? Coors’ current NFL partnership agreement has option years for 2011 and 2012 – would you extend the partnership beyond that? Am I overreacting to Coors inability to advertise during the Super Bowl?
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Filed under: pro sports, sports, beer