Peyton Manning’s free Budweiser endorsement worth upwards of $14M in media exposure
It took Peyton Manning about three seconds to accomplish the game’s biggest brand plug.
The Super Bowl is the advertising world’s biggest day of the year, and it doesn’t come cheap for most brands. This year, companies paid $5 million for 30 second spots during Super Bowl 50.
As opposed to what you might expect, the biggest marketing winner of last weekend’s Super Bowl was not one of the $5 million dollar TV spots, and apparently it came without any price tag at all.
Denver Broncos’ Peyton Manning told a CBS sideline reporter that his post-game goals included “drinking a lot of Budweiser.” Later on during the broadcast, while at the winner’s podium, he also said he was thinking about “how soon I can get a Bud Light in my mouth.”
The two plugs, both televised on CBS, created around $14 million in media exposure for Budweiser, according to the latest calculations from Apex Marketing Group Inc. About $8.8 million is derived from media coverage by national media publications and mentions on social media. Another $5 million came from television said the marketing firm to Bloomberg.
Manning wasn’t paid for the promotion, Anheuser-Busch head of marketing Lisa Weser said in a tweet.
Hi Internet. For the record, Budweiser did not pay Peyton Manning to mention Budweiser tonight. We were surprised and delighted that he did.
— Lisa Weser (@LisaWeser) February 8, 2016
Manning is the league’s highest-paid endorser, according to Forbes magazine. He makes $12 million per year off the field with partners like Buick, Nationwide, Papa John’s, Gatorade and DirecTV.
Yet another example of the sheer power of influencers combined with social media.
Cover photo credit: beerandwhiskeybros
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