Fresh off a massive Super Bowl performance, The Weeknd is on his way to having the biggest tour of his career and possibly one of the top-selling tours of all time. The rumors about spending $7 million on his performance are true but a small marketing expense to pay for the amount of attention received that day. Was the money well spent? Yes, let’s do the math.
The average cost of a super bowl commercial per minute is $11 million.
The Weeknd performed for a total of 12 minutes.
12 minutes x $11 million = $132 million
$132 million – $7 million = $125 million
The Weeknd received $132 million worth of advertising for $7 million dollars. Pepsi and the NFL do cover a small portion of the production cost, but it is very clear why artists would spend additional millions out of pocket to make their show the best it can possibly be.
Did this marketing strategy work? Yes, it does not get any better than this. 24 hours post his Super Bowl show sales skyrocketed 385%. 39 new shows have been added to the existing lineup for the 2022 After Hours world tour. 1 million tickets worldwide have been sold so far with shows in Paris, London, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and many more.
A tour of this size being announced makes us confident that we are nearing the return of live events. With vaccinations expected to be available for nearly everyone by July and rapid testing becoming cheaper and more available. Read more about Ticketmaster’s plan to check vaccination status for concerts.