With its coverage of the Super Bowl and the Beijing Winter Olympics just weeks away, NBCUniversal Media LLC's advertising sales force still has work to do on both marquee events.
The first is by choice. The NFL championship game remains virtually sold out, with Comcast Corp.'s content arm intentionally holding onto a handful of units, Dan Lovinger, president of NBCU ad sales and partnerships, said during a video presentation.
This "optionality" affords NBC Sports with opportunities depending on which teams are vying for the title Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Lovinger said some marketers have creativity that could resonate and play into the matchup. Overall, he said scripts NBCU has seen suggest a return to a slightly lighter, more comedic tone: "We all need that."
NBCU is also betting that it can derive even higher rates from the last-minute entrants than it has so far.
Overall, average unit rates for 30-second spots are up about 20% over the 2018 Super Bowl, the last time NBC (US) aired the NFL's title tilt, Lovinger said. The back half of the Super Bowl market has fetched some unit sales in excess of $6.5 million, he said.
Interest stems from the NFL's audience position, which Lovinger said has never been stronger comparatively speaking. The circuit's carriers posted a collective 10% rise in TV and digital viewership during the just-concluded NFL regular season and tackled viewership advances with their coverage of the Wild Card round of the playoffs — relative to other sports and general entertainment programming.
He also pointed to the economy, which is on "stable footing with a strongish GDP," as another advertising driver: "When consumers consume, advertisers advertise."
Marketers' adaptation to the COVID-19 world has also boosted Super Bowl ad sales, with studios returning to the game. New categories like legalized sports, betting, cryptocurrency and streaming platforms have supplemented buys from old category standbys like automotive, beverages and quick-serve restaurants.
As to the Beijing Olympics, Lovinger said the company was at the exact same sell-through level as it was heading into the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea. "We have some work to do between now and the end of the games, but we feel really confident that we will achieve all of our goals,” he said. NBC's presentation of the upcoming Games will include full coverage on the premium tiers of streaming service Peacock.
To date, the Winter Games have attracted nearly 100 advertisers, roughly the same number of brands ahead of Pyeongchang. Spending levels are slightly above four years ago, especially among returnees. Forty new advertisers are also on board, which Lovinger believes underlines the interest in the Olympic movement.
The U.S. is diplomatically boycotting the upcoming Olympics, citing human rights violations by the Chinese government, leaving Lovinger and his team to navigate more potential advertisers through that and other narratives.
"While we wish that there was no diplomatic boycott, we certainly understand it," he said. The boycott means "our diplomats won't be in Beijing. Our athletes will be there and will be excited to be there."
He also noted that U.S. athletes rely on the generosity of corporate America and individuals, who supply the Olympians with resources to train — unlike their counterparts in other nations who receive financial assistance from their governments.