Courtesy of FanDuel
By Brian Steinberg
Source: variety.com, February 2024
FanDuel and YouTube are trying to make a big splash in the moments just before the Big Game, hoping that commercials in the last break before kick-off will help them make a marketing point before consumers get deluged with 30-second spots — along with celebrity cameos and pop-song surprises – once the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers start their struggling in earnest.
The price of a commercial in that pre-kick break has soared to as much as $4 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. To be sure, that’s less than the $6.5 million to $7 million CBS has sought for equivalent time in the game, but nothing to be taken lightly.
The pre-kick has plenty of appeal. “It doesn’t matter how the game does. This is the moment when everyone is tuning in,” says Angela Courtin, global head of brand marketing at YouTube, during an interview. The company is heading into its seventh year of buying a pre-kick perch — which includes a title sponsorship of the half-hour leading into it during which it will tout both YouTube TV and its new rights to NFL Sunday Ticket — ands she says the moment represents “our best investment” in terms of generating return for the company.