Thread by @bopinion

With the Covid-19 crisis still raging in the U.S., some big advertisers have chosen to sit out Super Bowl LV:

🍻Budweiser
🥤Pepsi
🚗Hyundai
🥑Avocados From Mexico
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For Budweiser, it’s the first time in almost four decades that it won’t sponsor the NFL’s championship game.

Traditionally, it’s the advertising event of the year, with commercials just as much a part of the festivities as the game and halftime show trib.al/wwxFeCR

But the mood is different this year, and the excitement is lacking, even if M&M’s, Pringles and some of the other usual suspects will be there.

Companies that made the biggest air-time purchases for 2020's game are headed into 2021 with tighter budgets trib.al/wwxFeCR

A 30-second spot in Super Bowl LV reportedly cost $5.5 million, up from $4.37 million in 2016.

For some companies, the risk of an ad flop — or worse, a message sounding tone-deaf in an eruptive digital society — is too high trib.al/wwxFeCR

This period of cord cutting, social distancing and cultural strain will surely have lasting effects on many industries, but what they won’t do is bring about the end of the commercial.

There’s too much money to be had trib.al/wwxFeCR

TV ads suffered a 15% drop in 2020, as companies tried to conserve capital and lockdowns left hotels and restaurants with little incentive to buy air time.

Meanwhile, users accustomed to watching commercial free on services like Netflix and Disney+ trib.al/wwxFeCR

Fewer than half of U.S. households will subscribe to traditional pay TV by 2024.

Without ads, it will take years for streaming apps to replace the profits generated by traditional pay TV and the box office as both go away trib.al/wwxFeCR

Ads can help subsidize monthly streaming subscriptions to keep prices reasonably low and users from canceling.

It’s no surprise that Hulu’s most popular plan is the cheaper one with ads trib.al/wwxFeCR

One of the biggest motivations for Disney and AT&T to create their own direct-to-consumer video offering was to have direct access to and control over an immense amount of user data — information that is invaluable for advertising trib.al/wwxFeCR

AT&T CEO John Stankey has called targeted ads and streaming “a winning combination,” and the company will soon introduce a low-cost, ad version of its HBO Max service.

Comcast’s Peacock embraced ads right out of the gate. Netflix may be the one holdout trib.al/wwxFeCR

As for Sunday’s game, advertisers are smart to wait out the weirdness of 2020 — we wouldn’t want a repeat of Pepsi’s cringeworthy Kendall Jenner moment.

But while various forces upend cable TV and live sports, the future of the ad looks certain trib.al/wwxFeCR