Scoring the Best Super Bowl Ad Placement Is Almost as Hard as Winning the Big Game

With a $5 million-plus investment at stake, brands and media buyers don't want to fumble

Because the Super Bowl is sold by position, marketers have to determine up front where they want their spots to appear. Getty Images

By Jason Lynch

January 26, 2020

Last May, Fox and the NFL had a big surprise for advertisers considering buying a spot in Super Bowl LIV. The companies said they would be reducing the number of ad breaks in each quarter of Sunday’s championship game from five to four, in order to speed up pacing and improve the viewing experience. The new format—which mirrors that of regular season NFL games, consolidating the same number of in-game spots into four fewer ad pods—resulted in a contraction of premium inventory: namely, the coveted A or Z positions (referring to the first and last ads of each pod).

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This story first appeared in the Jan. 27, 2020, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Jason Lynch

@jasonlynch jason.lynch@adweek.com Jason Lynch is TV Editor at Adweek, overseeing trends, technology, personalities and programming across broadcast, cable and streaming video.