Superbowl Ads. Expensive airtime, super Ads and probably the most watched TV programme ever in The USA.

Tonight is Superbowl Sunday - just in case you've been in a cave (!) and haven't heard. What makes it exciting is ad watching. A lot of brands are now launching "teasers" in advance of the game to get you "teased" to look out for the final version. This one for Samsung (in two parts) looks terrific and titled "the next big thing". At 2 minutes, I'm guessing they'll spend about 12 million just on the one Superbowl broadcast alone. Is it worth it? Have a look but I think it's a great spot (Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd are very well known stateside). The second part is great and below.

Possibly the most expensive airtime on the planet in terms of overall cost per commercial (3.7 million usd a piece) but not per capita. Interesting for example, that Ireland's own Late Late Show is more expensive per viewer than The Superbowl. Because even though you pay 3.7 million for a Superbowl spot, you reach about 200 million people who will watch at least part of the game (mainly the 3rd and 4th quarters so end spots can be more valuable). The final Samsung commercial is going out, for example, in the 4th quarter.

Consequently based on a standard trade measure of cost-per-thousand CPT (the cost of reaching one thousand viewers) Superbowl does very well in value terms because the audience is so huge. Therefore, all spots are well sold out.

About 130 million will watch the game end-to-end and that will make it the most watched US TV programme ever. Because the content (American Football) limits it to US viewer appeal, it doesn't reach the viewing heights of sports with global appeal like Soccer. About half the planet for example, watch The World Cup Final, putting the viewer numbers in billions.

So a lot of us will watch the Ads and, as I've blogged over the last couple of days, the Ads can really make a difference as the "Dart Vader/Star Wars" spot did for VW last year. Already over 200 million viral views. 'Doritos' and recently 'Go Daddy' largely built brand recognition with their Superbowl spots as indeed did Steve Jobs choose it to launch his new Apple Mac in the 1984 Superbowl.

It's a huge night for advertising and social media nevermind, for football.