Total spending on Super Bowl ads has skyrocketed over the years, growing 5 times larger than it was 23 years ago. In addition to the networks, the entertainment and pop culture partners are also benefiting from the high price tag for 30 seconds of airtime. Ryan Schinman, Co-Founder & CEO of Mayflower Entertainment, was with us to share how he connects brands with athletes, celebrities, and influencers.
Schinman is responsible for orchestrating some of the largest endorsement deals ever made between Madison Avenue and Hollywood. He is credited for creating such partnerships as: Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson with Dolce and Gabbana, Diddy and Usher with Mercedes, and Oprah and DJ Khaled with Weight Watchers. Schinman said the Super Bowl ad that he was involved in that he is most proud of was the Justin Timberlake commercial with Pepsi. He said it made Pepsi "beyond relevant" in the pop culture world.
Super Bowl ads cost around $5 million. Schinman said there's no exact science for measuring the success of a marketing campaign because there are too many variables. Put simply, if brands can improve their visibility and sell more products, it's worth the investment, he added.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
