Even though it has touted the value of Super Bowl advertising and spent heavily on it in the last two years, General Motors Co. said it will skip the big game in 2013, in part because running television spots costs too much.
We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply cant justify the expense, said GMs marketing chief Joel Ewanick in a statement.
Ewanick, who built a formidable reputation with other car makers including Hyundai and Porsche before joining GM, is known for surprising moves, and this was his second such maneuver in a week. Last Tuesday GM said it would stop buying ads on Facebook, and instead rely on the sites free content. The car maker said paid ads do not attract enough buyers.
Ad time for last seasons game in February cost about $3.5 million for 30 seconds, according to media buyers, and have risen about 59% since 2001, when a spot sold for roughly $2.2 million. Spots for the next years game are expected to cost about $3.8 million for 30 seconds, the buyers said.
GM is the third largest Super Bowl advertisers, following Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo Inc. and has shelled out about $82 million on Super Bowl ad time between 2002-2011, according to Kantar Media, an ad-tracking firm owned by WPP PLC.
GM pulled out of the Super Bowl in 2009 amid the companys financial crisis and returned two years later with a string of spots promoting its bread-and-butter Chevrolet brand.
