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Who’s Buying What in Super Bowl 2013 — From Anheuser Busch to Volkswagen, Ads Are Shaping Up for the Big Game

Dec 14, 2012  •  Post A Comment

By Brian Steinberg
Advertising Age

It’s never too early to talk about the Super Bowl or Super Bowl commercials.

As CBS works to sell the last handful of spots for its 2013 broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII from New Orleans, Ad Age is posting its annual chart of which advertisers are buying into the event and what is known of their plans. With ad packages going for an average of $3.7 million to $3.8 million, the Super Bowl represents perhaps the biggest investment a marketer may make in a single media property all year.

The usual coterie of big sponsors is more or less on board again in 2013 — hello, Pepsi! hello Bud Light! — accompanied by opportunistic, smaller brands that want to make a big splash, such as Century 21 and GoDaddy.com, both of which are also returning to the game.

We’ll be sure to update our chart every time we get new details on a particular marketer’s plans or an announcement of a new entrant to the game’s ad roster. Changes will come frequently, so be sure to check back.

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Buy: To be determined. A-B InBev is perhaps the Super Bowl’s largest ongoing sponsor and typically buys between three and four minutes’ worth of ad inventory. The 2012 game saw A-B InBev take a total of four and a half minutes of ad time across six commercials.

Creative: To be determined. In 2012, A-B touted Bud Light Platinum, Bud Light and flagship Budweiser. The company is planning significant marketing to introduce Budweiser "Black Crown," a higher-alcohol version of Bud, early next year, so it may be a contender for at least one Super Bowl spot.

Agency: Translation, led by Steve Stoute and Jay-Z, among others, is said to be working on two spots for Bud Light Platinum, repeating the Super Bowl assignment it had for the beer marketer in 2012. In the last Super Bowl, Bud Light was handled by McGarry Bowen and Cannonball. The Budweiser ads came from Anomaly.

Audi of America (Volkswagen)

Buy: One 60-second spot. This will mark Audi’s sixth consecutive entry as a Super Bowl advertiser.

Creative: To be determined.

Agency: San Francisco independent Venables, Bell and Partners

Best Buy

Buy: To be determined. In 2012, the retailer aired one 30-second spot.

Creative: To be determined. In 2012, Best Buy focused on inventors such as Philippe Kahn, an early camera-phone developer, and Kevin Systrom, who developed the social photo platform, Instagram.

Agency: To be determined. In 2013, Best Buy tapped MDC Partners’ Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

Cars.com

Buy: One 30-second spot

Creative: Expected to focus on how the site’s tools make car shopping a great experience

Agency: Dentsu’s McGarryBowen, which was named Cars.com’s agency in May following the company’s long relationship with Omnicom Group’s DDB.

Coca-Cola

Buy: Coca-Cola has purchased three 30-second spots.

Creative: To be determined. In 2012, Coke prepared two versions of a minute-long ad starring animated polar bears and waited until the last minute to choose which to air, based on which polar bear’s favorite team was winning. Online, Coke let the bears run wild, so to speak, as they offered up reactions to the game and the ads — drinking Coca-Cola all the while.

Agency: To be determined. Independent Wieden & Kennedy has worked on Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl advertising for several years.

Century 21 (Realogy)

Buy: One 30-second ad set to air early in the third quarter

Creative: To be determined. The company said in early November that it was "looking at creative concepts." Century 21 made its Super Bowl debut in the 2012 game.

Agency: Independent Red Tettemer and Partners of Philadelphia

Ford Motor’s Lincoln Motor (Updated: 12/3/2012)

Buy: One 60-second spot. Ford Motor routinely avoids the Super Bowl, so its decision to place one of its brands in the game is somewhat eyebrow raising.

Creative: To be determined. Ford is rebranding Lincoln by calling the unit "Lincoln Motor Co." and introducing a campaign that makes use of legendary president Abraham Lincoln.

Agency: WPP’s Hudson Rouge, a new unit dedicated exclusively to Lincoln.

Gildan Activewear’s Gildan (Updated: 12/13/2012)

Buy: One spot set to air in the third quarter of the event.

Creative: Long known mainly as a supplier of printed T-shirts and other athletic apparel sold to tourists or sport fans, Gildan is trying to step up its game with clothing whose appeal hinges on the Gildan brand itself .

Agency: Independent shop DeVito/Verdi

GoDaddy.com

Buy: Two 30-second spots

Creative: To be determined, though GoDaddy Chief Marketing Officer Barb Rechterman said in an October press announcement that "We are doing something we’ve never done in a Super Bowl — we are repositioning sexy." Whatever that means.

Agency: After years of making and producing its own ads with the help of small shops, GoDaddy has enlisted the New York office of Interpublic Group’s Deutsch.

Hyundai

Buy: To be determined. Hyundai bought two 30-second spots in 2012.

Creative: To be determined

Agency: Hyundai has long relied on its internal ad agency, Innocean.

Hyundai’s Kia Motor

Buy: To be determined. In 2012, Kia ran one 60-second spot in the fourth quarter

Creative: To be determined. Kia’s 2012 ad featured an "extreme dream sequence" featuring, among other things, a sleeping husband, model Adriana Lima and Motley Crue.

Agency: To be determined. Independent David & Goliath has crafted Kia’s Super Bowl ads in recent years.

Mercedes-Benz (Updated: 12/03/2012)

Buy: One ad in the fourth quarter, length to be determined. The 2013 game is being played in Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans — one reason why Mercedes decided to return to the game after appearing in 2011 but skipping 2012.

Creative: The carmaker will highlight its CLA, a model that will be introduced with what is believed to be a surprising price point and aimed at broadening the consideration set for the auto brand. Model Kate Upton is expected to team with rapper Usher for the carmaker’s Super Bowl effort, but the head of the company’s U.S. operations has also hinted that other celebrities have joined.

Agency: Omnicom Group’s Merkley Partners

Mondelez International’s Oreo

Buy: One 30-second spot set to air in the first half of the game

Creative: To be determined. Oreo has set about a wide array of ad and marketing efforts in recent months to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Agency: The brand has named independent Wieden & Kennedy to lead Super Bowl work behind Oreo.

PepsiCo Beverages

Buy: To be determined. In 2012, Pepsi ran two ads, one for its flagship brand and the other for PepsiMax

Creative: To be determined

Agency: Omnicom Group’s TBWA /Chiat/Day has led Pepsi’s Super Bowl efforts in recent years.

PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay

Buy: To be determined. Doritos is running its venerable "Crash The Super Bowl" contest for the seventh year in a row

Creative: Doritos will again conduct a contest offering amateurs the chance to have a self-produced ad run in the Super Bowl. It is also offering the consumer who creates the top-ranked Doritos commercial to run during the game the chance to work with director Michael Bay on the next installment of "Transformers." (Rankings will be determined by USA Today’s Ad Meter consumer poll.)

Agency: Omnicom Group’s Goodby Silverstein and Partners has long assisted.

Samsung

Buy: To be determined

Creative: To be determined. Samsung ran a 90-second ad in the fourth quarter of the 2012 game that mocked Apple fans
. That theme has continued in the consumer-electronics marketer’s recent advertising.
Agency: To be determined. MDC Partners’ 72andSunny worked on Samsung’s 2012 Super Bowl effort.

Skechers

Buy: To be determined

Creative: To be determined

Agency: To be determined

SodaStream International (Updated: 12/04/2012)

Buy: One 30-second ad set to air in the fourth quarter of the game

Creative: The ad will be based on the company’s current effort showing scenes of soda bottles suddenly disappearing as people effortlessly make their own soda with SodaStream. That spot (watch it here) caused controversy in London, where authorities deemed the ad disparaging to big sodamakers such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

Agency: The earlier spot being revised for the Super Bowl by SodaStream was created by Common, the independent agency that includes former CP+B creative executive Alex Bogusky, but the agency and Mr. Bogusky are not involved in reworking it.

Volkswagen

Buy: To be determined. The most recent game saw one 60-second Volkswagen spot in the second quarter.

Creative: No dogs allowed. After making a mild splash around the 2012 game with a teaser ad and a Super Bowl follow-up that used dogs as its centerpiece, the automaker will veer in a different direction, according to press reports.

Agency: The Los Angeles office of Interpublic Group’s Deutsch

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