It should "come as no surprise that marketers are already talking about advertising" during NBC's Feb. 1 telecast of Super Bowl XLIX, and many brands "have acknowledged buying commercials" from the network, according to Stuart Elliott of the N.Y. TIMES. Mercedes-Benz on Thursday said that it "would return to the Super Bowl." Also, Loctite glue "will become a Super Bowl advertiser for the first time and put almost its entire" '15 ad budget into a spot, while mobile brand Mophie will be "another Super Bowl ad newcomer." There "have also been reports about other potential Super Bowl advertisers like McDonald's." Meanwhile, Visa sent e-mails to cardholders this week "through member banks like Bank of America as part of a promotion to 'win a trip to Super Bowl XLIX, courtesy of Visa.'" The "front-running of Super Bowl hoopla is partly a result of holiday creep and partly of the popularity of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube," which "make it much easier to discuss and share Super Bowl spots well before the game." Given how much the commercials cost, it "may never be too soon to start amortizing the expense." How NBC fares with the pace of sales and the prices charged "is being watched perhaps more closely than such matters usually are for two reasons." One is to gauge whether the NFL "is suffering any lingering aftereffects from the recent uproar over domestic violence by players and the league’s reaction to their behavior." The other "is a recent softening in demand for commercial time on television" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/7).
