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After narrowly averting a sports-themed sequel to Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the chartreuse title role and the NFL Players Assn.’s DeMaurice Smith standing in for the loyal, enthusiastic reindeer dog Max, all the Whos down in Whoville still find that they like football, a lot.
Thanks to the resolution of the lockout, one of the most highly anticipated seasons in NFL history kicked off Thursday, Sept. 8, in Green Bay, Wis., as the Super Bowl XLV-winning Packers beat the 2010 world champion New Orleans Saints 42-34.
The 2011 season is also getting off to a more patriotic start than in most years—and that isn’t a reference to President Obama’s special address to Congress immediately preceding the game.
The NFL signed the United Services Automobile Assn. to become its first Official Military Appreciation Sponsor beginning this season, in the first known leaguewide sponsorship designed specifically for military appreciation. The USAA plans to advertise heavily during NFL games.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s main regular-season kickoff marks a more somber occasion, the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. To honor those who lost their lives, the NFL and NFLPA will contribute $500,000 to the 9/11 Museum & Memorial in Lower Manhattan, plus $250,000 to be divided between the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon Memorial Fund in Washington. Also, the league and union will donate proceeds from an auction of items used in this year’s Sept. 11 games, which is expected to generate at least $250,000.
As NFL fans eagerly flock back to their big-screen TVs on Sunday, so too do advertisers. The league is seeing some of the heaviest activation around NFL football in many seasons, with ESPN providing one of its biggest platforms (despite Goodell’s near-constant reassurance to fans that the NFL’s heart still beats on free TV).
On Thursday, the NFL and ESPN announced an eight-year extension to their existing media rights agreement that is worth $1.8 billion per year, an astounding 63 percent increase over the average amount of the current deal. The agreement will keep Monday Night Football on ESPN through 2021, and also gives ESPN an increased array of digital rights that will allow the cable network to stream live games via broadband, tablets, and handheld devices as part of the cable industry’s “TV Everywhere” initiative.
NBC, the NFL’s partner for Football Night in America every Sunday, is certainly not left out in the cold. Earlier this week, the network announced that it has just five advertising spots left for February’s Super Bowl broadcast, despite a record price tag of $3.5 million on average for a 30-second spot. Last season’s game on Fox (averaging $3.0 million per spot) did not sell out until late October, but NBC anticipates that it could sell out of its remaining inventory by month’s end, well ahead of the norm.
The Super Bowl—nearing 50 (like the Grinch)—has set records as the most-watched show in TV history for two years running, averaging 111 million total viewers last season. Among the companies that have committed to buy ad time during February’s game, coming to the world from Indianapolis, are Kia, Teleflora, Skechers, and GoDaddy.com.
PepsiCo has also committed to multiple Super Bowl ads, but the snack food giant is not stopping there. Earlier this week, the company announced a 10-year extension of its current NFL sponsorship deal that takes it through the 2022 playoffs and could be valued as high as $2.3 billion, making it one of the largest sponsorship agreements to date in U.S. sports. The deal also ensures that PepsiCo brands Pepsi, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana will be official marketing partners of the league at a cost of nearly $100 million a year, with Gatorade’s orange coolers front and center on NFL sidelines. PepsiCo will continue to sponsor the NFL International Series as well.
