With Pepsi’s NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show sponsorship rights to expire after the upcoming 2022 event, the NFL could be set to take the sponsorship to the open market.
Pepsi originally signed on as the sponsor of the halftime show in 2012 with a deal valued at more than $2 billion with the NFL.
The NFL, following the end of the 2022 NFL season, could look to open a rights tender for brands willing to secure the rights and replace Pepsi from 2023 onwards.
The rights to the halftime show include ancillary programming throughout the NFL season, specific commercial positioning during the Super Bowl, exclusive access to Super Bowl halftime entertainers, and lead-up content.
A recent report valued the NFL Super Bowl halftime show between $25-50 million according to CNBC, with 30-second ad slots for the 2022 event being sold by NBC for $6.5 million.
The discussion on the future rights of the event comes after Pepsi unveiled the line-up of entertainers, including Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary. J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar, through a short film trailer, ‘The Call’.
Alongside the line-up announcement, Pepsi revealed the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show app, which will house halftime-show related content such as behind-the-scenes footage of the entertainers, along with a number of unique promotions and giveaways specific to the app.
Pepsi has also confirmed it will not run any Super Bowl ads for its products, opting instead to invest heavier into the half-time show itself, but some of its brands under its parent company, PepsiCo, may still take advertising slots.
Pepsi vice president of marketing, Todd Kaplan, said: “Last year we shifted our strategy to start talking about the show well in advance, and bring fans closer to the experience.”
“Now with five epic talents all coming together, we thought this was a perfect way to tell the origin story of how Dr. Dre has assembled this line-up, but also to give fans earlier access and get people more excited to really engage deeper with the show,” Kaplan said.
Discussing the progress in selling ad spots for the 2022 Super Bowl, NBC Sports executive vice president of sales and partnerships, Dan Lovinger, said the 2022 event has “virtually sold out” of ad spaces, with auto manufacturers, cryptocurrency platforms, sports betting, and streaming companies pushing for extensive coverage.
