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For the second year in a row, Anheuser-Busch has grabbed the title of top Super Bowl advertiser, beating six-time winner Pepsico. According to Competitive Media Reporting, which surveyed Super Bowl advertising in 1999 across all media, Anheuser-Busch, with a $16.8 million power play during the 1999 game, crushed Pepsico and First Union, which each spent $6.4 million on advertising linked to the big event. Anheuser-Busch's ads represented nearly 17 percent of the record $100.8 million spent on advertising during the 1999 Super Bowl event. Last year, Anheuser-Busch was the top spender with $10.4 million. Pepsico actually spent more on advertising during the 1998 games--a total of $9.1 million. Overall, Super Bowl advertising in 1999 was 155 percent greater than in 1990, reflecting the growing importance of the game as one of the biggest audience-pullers in media. Only a year earlier, in 1998, ad spending was just $78 million. The cost of a 30-second spot has been soaring. Last year's 55 spots went for an average of $1.6 million. This year the average will be closer to $2.4 million, with some advertisers paying as much as $3 million. Back in 1990, a 30-second spot only cost $659,500. Dot.coms, a dozen of which are advertising on television during this year's Super Bowl XXXIV, are a major factor in Super Bowl advertising this year. Compare that to last year when Monster.com, the first internet company to advertise during the big game, was only tied for 10th with 13 other advertisers at $3.2 million in overall spending.
AGs again whack Publishers Clearing House
Twenty five states, from New York to New Mexico, have filed yet another suit against Publishers Clearing House over the sweepstakes company marketing practices, alleging that the PCH misleads people into believing they’ve won, or stand to win, huge cash prizes and that the must subscribe to magazines in order to become contest winners. This suit follows an earlier suit by attorneys general of nine states over those same allegations. Also pending is a class-action suit against PCH in which upwards of 40 million Americans are deemed eligible to collect. The 25 AGs filed yesterday’s suit in part because they fear a settlement in the class-action litigation, if allowed to go through unchallenged, would let PCH off without ensuring an end to the alleged abuses. Also under heavy attack by AGs has been American Family Publishing; AFP recently filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey as part of its effort to pay off settlements with a number of states.
Emmis nabs L.A. Magazine from Disney
Emmis Communications has acquired Los Angeles Magazine from Disney,
beating out Primedia. Industry insiders speculate the magazine was sold for somewhere
between $20 and $30 million. The magazine has a monthly paid circulation of 183,373 and a
total monthly readership of more than 550,000. Emmis already publishes several regional
and specialty magazines including Texas Monthly, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Indianapolis Monthly
and Country Sampler. The Indianapolis-based media firm also owns also two radio networks,
seven television stations and additional businesses in broadcast sales and publishing.
Primedia, long thought to be the most likely buyer, owns New York and Chicago among its
many titles.
Idle gossip: Monica's unfit for Jane
Amusing if true: Rumor has it that Jenny Craig spokeswoman Monica Lewinsky
is getting booted off the cover of an upcoming issue of Jane magazine. Supposedly,
advertisers found Lewinsky undesirable as a cover girl. Editor Jane Pratt is said to be
currently scrambling to find a replacement cover subject. A representative for Jane
maintains that the magazine is still considering Lewinsky for a cover and that advertisers
have not complained. But it is obvious that not everyone thinks the infamous intern is
good for business. The owner of Jenny Craig clinics in Iowa and Wisconsin refused to air
the company’s new diet ads featuring Lewinsky because they said they believed she was
a poor role model.
Car-buyers swamp web dealer, crashing
site
If anyone has any doubts about consumer
interest in buying large goods over the internet, look at what happened yesterday with
Autobytel.com. First thing in the morning, the online car broker announced a program to
sell cars to people directly over the internet.
By yesterday afternoon, users logging onto Autobytel.com were receiving a message stating
that the site was not working due to overwhelming demand. Autobytel says it sells about
50,000 a month by gathering information from web shoppers and relaying it to the service's
3,000 subscriber dealers. The company had stated in a press release that the new program
would make buying cars as easy as buying books on the web. Apparently people are ready to
believe it. All of which goes to prove that even in cyberspace, automobiles can crash.