This past Sunday, a record 97.4 million viewers tuned into Super Bowl XLII. As the biggest Super Bowl audience in history, the game had all the draws: big teams, big cities, records, quarterbacks, controversy and upsets!

Some of the biggest news, however, had nothing to do with what was happening on the football field. Each year Super Bowl Ads get bigger, better…and more expensive. This year a 30-second time slot went for $2.7 million, with some companies running 60-second and multiple ads. At that price, and with no guarantee on audience size, it seems like a difficult decision. But, it is not just advertising and air time these companies are paying for and banking on. It’s publicity and media coverage.

Super Bowl Ads have taken on a life of their own, and each year, that life gets bigger. Weeks leading up to the game, media buzz over who will buy ads, what companies will top last year’s Ads and who will steal the show. Before the game airs, viewers are ready to TIVO the ads and vote on and discuss their favorites.

Following the game, the buzz gets even bigger. The lucky Ads deemed best gain millions of free publicity dollars through blogs, online forums, social networking sites and endless news coverage. MySpace launched a page dedicated to this year’s ads, so did YouTube and USA Today. USA Today is also running a week long Ad Meter 20 series where they analyze the best, the worst and everything in between. And that’s just one publication—every major newspaper and broadcast station in the country talks about the ads.

Companies that are glad they spent every penny this year include Anheuser-Busch, E-Trade, Coca-Cola, Tide, Doritos, Fed-Ex, Planters Peanuts and Bridgestone.

$2.7 million dollars, plus the money spent to create the ads, is a big price tag for 30-seconds of time, but with that many viewers and the millions of free publicity up for grabs, it’s an easier decision than you might think for many companies.

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.