Football beer advertising
Lionel Messi collects millions for his Super Bowl premiere
As of: 12:23 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Lionel Messi will appear multiple times during the Super Bowl
Quelle: picture alliance/NurPhoto/Vernon Yuen
In the summer of 2023, world footballer Lionel Messi moved from FC Barcelona to Inter Miami in the US football league. In terms of sport, things are mixed. But now the Argentine is cashing in on the biggest advertising stage in the world.
The Super Bowl casts its shadow ahead. On the night of Sunday to Monday (February 12th, 12:30 a.m. German time) the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will play for the most important trophy in American football. A big focus at this mega event is always on the advertisements – this year Lionel Messi will be flickering across the screens for the first time.
The world champion will appear in the Michelob Ultra commercials. In addition to Messi, the beer brand, which belongs to the large Anheuser-Busch conglomerate, also won former Miami quarterback Dan Marino and Ted Lasso actor Jadon Sudeikis as testimonials.
The commercial shows Messi ordering a Michelob Ultra in a beach bar, but the beer keg is empty at that moment. While the Argentine waits for his beer, he plays a game on the beach. Sudeikis watches as Messi plays a one-two with Marino, who illegally throws the ball back to Messi with his hand.
30 seconds of advertising costs seven million dollars
The commercial is available in three versions: 30, 60 and 90 seconds long. The brewery published the advertising clips on YouTube in advance.
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The prices for advertising at the Super Bowl are also enormous this year. 30 seconds of advertising cost seven million dollars, and the organizers expect advertising revenue of a total of 600 million dollars. Michelob Ultra not only digs deep into its pockets for screen time, Messi’s appearance in the commercial also costs a lot.
For example, “Talksport” reports that the 36-year-old alone collected 14 million euros. There are also the sums for Marino and Sudeikis. A large volume, but the advertising reach of the Super Bowl is also enormous. Over 100 million people worldwide tune in to the mega event. The investments should be worth it.
Football in the USA in the “golden era”
“Soccer is heading into a golden era in the U.S.,” said Ricardo Marques, vice president of marketing for Michelob Ultra, adding, “The soccer market is huge and important to us. We couldn’t do this without the Goat [Messi] is itself a part of our history.”
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For Messi, the advertising partnership should not only pay off financially. His already great popularity in the USA is likely to increase further through the collaboration with one of the largest American beer brands.