The Most Expensive Ad Spots in the World

It’s common knowledge that the cost of running a commercial during the Super Bowl doesn’t come cheap—$4.5 million per 30-second spot for the 2015 year, to be precise—but for marketing companies around the world, advertising in both the digital and traditional spheres can cost a pretty penny. Businesses are paying millions of dollars a year for all kinds of ad space, from massive billboards to video ads on social networks.

Television Ads

While the Super Bowl and other big sporting events reign supreme, non-sports programs have been gaining traction within the U.S. television market—commercials during AMC’s “The Walking Dead” come in third after “NBC Sunday Night Football” and CBS’s new “Thursday Night Football,” with the price of a 30-second commercial averaging over $400,000. 

CBS network’s “The Big Bang Theory” comes in at number 5 with a 30-second spot averaging $344,827. Sponsorship of the most recent World Cup in Brazil, meanwhile, cost corporations $75 million apiece.

Physical Ad Space

The days of billboard ads are not yet over, as any visitor to Times Square or Tokyo’s Shibuya district can confirm. The most expensive billboard in the United States is also the largest: buying four weeks of display time on the eight-story digital billboard the length of a football field that rests on the front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square will costs marketing companies a whopping $2.5 million. 

However, the title of “World’s Most Expensive Billboard” goes to the Skydive Dubai billboard that involves 20-to-30 seconds of a man flying around on an actual jetpack before landing on said billboard.

Digital Ad Space

Facebook is king when it comes to social media advertising; in-feed video ads can cost anywhere from $1-2.4 million a day. YouTube follows close behind, with marketing companies paying up to $500,000 for a home page takeover, and even more to secure the first preroll ad that plays before a video. 

Yahoo and AOL homepages continue to gain a stronger hold on the market, pulling in anywhere between $450,000 and $700,000 and $275,000 and $300,000 a day for a homepage takeover, respectively. Streaming options such as Hulu or CBS’s March Madness on Demand also rake in a pretty penny.

For marketing companies across the globe, making positive impressions on a target audience is the ultimate end goal, worthy of dropping a fortune for prime advertising real estate. Whether it involves hiring actresses or sky-high jetpack stuntmen, the price of exposure is seemingly limitless.

Natalie Benoy writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. She writes for many other clients as well. Follow on Twitter