Rovell on Bud Merger
July 15, 2008
CNBC Sports Biz Analyst Darren Rovell adds numbers and a little context to the the discussion earlier about the Bud InBev merger:
Anheuser-Busch spent $218,210,715 on advertising during sporting events in 2007. That made up 83.8 percent of their total TV ad spending, according to Nielsen Media Research and the SportsBusiness Journal. That $218 million topped the next biggest sports spender, Chevrolet, by $45 million.Don’t forget, all this takes place as Coors and Miller officially combined on July 1. Those two were the ninth and 11th highest spenders on sports programming in 2007, combining for $172 million in sporting event advertising on TV.
That $218 million represents a huge line item on the budget and would seem to be tempting target for cuts. If Bud is looking at “bang for your buck” as a measure, the UFC should be in good shape. They deliver the target demos (21-34) for Bud in droves, as was mentioned by bud execs at the sponsorship announcement:
UFC has developed a huge following in recent years and is wildly popular with the 21-34 year old fans we want to reach,†said Tony Ponturo, vice president, global media and sports marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “The number of people attending live events, buying the pay-per-views and talking about UFC around the water cooler continues to grow. It’s just a great place for us to be.â€
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