Nissan May Use Back Gate to Sneak Into Super Bowl TV Ads

Nissan May Use Back Gate to Sneak Into Super Bowl TV Ads

By Dale Buss

Nissan says it has never advertised its vehicles on TV during the Super Bowl, but that may be changing in Super Bowl XLII on February 3 and the introduction of the restyled 2009 Murano.

The company isn’t denying reports that it may seek a significant in-game ad presence by making a large spot buy that would allow it to run many local advertisements on Fox TV stations and affiliates during the game.

Spokeswoman Kathryn Fields called “rumor and speculation” an Advertising Age report that the bloc of local spots is being assembled for Nissan and that the company will use it to advertise Murano, its mid-size crossover vehicle.

The gambit would be interesting for at least two reasons. First, it would give Nissan essentially a first-ever presence during the Super Bowl even though it wouldn’t be advertising on Fox Network, which is charging from $2.7 million to $3 million for every 30 seconds of advertising during the game broadcast itself.

Local ads are much less expensive than network spots and could help Nissan create the impression, among viewers in the affected metro markets, that its commercial is just another part of the much-celebrated parade of TV advertising that makes Super Bowl spots among the most-watched – and least-deleted by DVRs – of any during the year.

What’s more, Nissan’s purported interest in advertising during the Super Bowl puts it alongside Audi as a first-timer while the Detroit Three have turned lukewarm about advertising during the next Super Bowl. General Motors, for example, may have zero in-game advertisements during Super Bowl XLII compared with three last year; Chevrolet will run a spot during game-day broadcasting on Fox but hasn’t yet decided if its single advertisement will run during or before the game.

In general, Fox is finding robust demand for Super Bowl ads in part because the TV-writers’ strike promises a dearth of original drama and comedy programming in early 2008.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.