Recently I came across an article from CBS about how the cost to run a 30sec. Super Bowl ad this year has dipped compared to the past few years. You can follow the complete article here.
The cost this year is anywhere between $2.5 million to $2.8 million. Last year the average price for a 30 second spot was $3 Million. This has caused some of the "big players" in advertising to step back, allowing smaller companies the opportunity to advertise on the most watched event of the year. While big names like Pepsi and General Motors are putting less money into advertise during the Super Bowl, smaller companies such as Dr. Pepper, Snapple, and Diamond Foods have stepped up to the plate.
About 20-25% of this years sponsors are first time advertisers for the Super Bowl. According to CBS.com:
"Big money is at stake. From 1990 through last year, the Super Bowl game has generated $2.17 billion of network sales including 1,400 commercials from 210 advertisers"
For the first time in 23 years Pepsi won't have an advertisement during this years Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see which companies will step up and pay the big bucks for spot. Many smaller internet companies have forked over the money to advertise over the past few years such as GoDaddy.com, who has had great success due to the ads. I would expect more internet based companies to follow in GoDaddy.com's footsteps.
It is obvious why the cost of a Super Bowl ad has dropped. The simple answer is the economy. Companies all over the United States are cutting back, many of them are slashing their advertising budget. It is unrealistic for them to spend the same amount of money for a single 30 second spot instead of a whole advertising campaign. Since demand is low for Super Bowl ads the cost has dropped.
The Super Bowl has become famous for having the best commercials aired during its program. We are used to hilarious, high budget, spectacles during the four-hour program. It will be interesting to see if the actual quality of the commercials will drop as well due to the lack of money being put into advertising.
In a recent interview with AICN, Keanu Reeves talked about his upcoming projects. While he quickly talked about "Bill and Ted 3" and another project "47 Ronin", he went into depth about the upcoming Matrix installments.
Apparently he met with the Wachowski brothers (Directors of Matrix 1-3) and they discussed the possibilities os continuing the franchise. The films are set to be filmed and released over the next five years and the final drafts of the scripts are being prepared.
One exciting factor is that the Wachowski brothers are hiring James Cameron's studio to use the same 3D technology that was used in Avatar. Read the full article HERE.
In a world where Hollywood is obsessed with sequels, the fact that these films are in production doesn't surprise me at all. I wonder if there is anything left in the franchise. After the amazing success of the first film "The Matrix" (1999) which won 4 Oscars and grossed over $200mil. in the box office. I was excited for the first sequels. The original film had great action, special effects, characters, and a plot that wasn't spoon-fed to the audience. After seeing "The Matrix: Reloaded" and "The Matrix: Revolutions" I was very unimpressed. They were almost completely different films that seemed to exist outside the franchise. They added too many characters and too much plot elements to the point where they didn't seem to even complete the story of the first film.
The Wachowski brothers are going to finish their film Cloud Atlas before continuing the Matrix franchise.
According to Reeves the new films will "deliver something which has never been seen and would truly transform the action movie genre."
It is hard to imagine how far the plot will go in the next two films, but at least we have some cool special effects to look forward too. My plea to Hollywood is to come up with another amazing, original, film like the first "Matrix" instead of pummeling us with sequels.
