Superbowl Bolsters Music

An exciting, down-to-the-wire Super Bowl XLII was exactly what advertisers were looking for, keeping viewers tuned in until the clock ran out as Eli Manning’s Giants upset the undefeated New England Patriots. The halftime show, veteran rockers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, just might have been the biggest advertisement of the night.

An exciting, down-to-the-wire Super Bowl XLII was exactly what advertisers were looking for, keeping viewers tuned in until the clock ran out as Eli Manning’s Giants upset the undefeated New England Patriots. The halftime show, veteran rockers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, just might have been the biggest advertisement of the night.

Petty rocked out a 12-minute set consisting of classic hits: “American Girl,” “Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin’,” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” Halftime acts are not paid for their performance, but the exposure to nearly 100 million American television viewers is priceless. In 2002, U2 saw the sales of three of their CDs more than double after a Super Bowl halftime appearance, and last year’s performance by Prince initiated a sales increases for two of his CDs and paid downloads. Petty and Co. strategically launched ticket sales for their 2008 summer tour to begin Monday, February 4, in hopes to reap similar benefits.

Commercial advertisements also tied in artists, new and old, with the hope to squeeze every last drop out of the year’s most expensive advertising window. The Flaming Lips were plugged in a Ford commercial, and Pepsi teamed up with Amazon again, using Justin Timberlake to promote their bottle cap redemption program for mp3s at Amazon.com. Breakout singer/songwriter Kina Grannis, winner of the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, enjoyed an incredible plug in the first quarter that directed viewers to iTunes.