NBC Taps Big Advertisers to Support ‘SNL’ 50th Season

Brian Steinberg
·3 min read
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NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has spent nearly half a century making fun of advertisers and Madison Avenue pitches. A few big marketers want to help the show continue.

Allstate, L’Oreal Groupe, T-Mobile, and Volkswagen of America have signed up to serve as presenting sponsors of the next season of the NBC late-night mainstay, which which will be the series’ 50th. The four marketers will sponsor the show all season, which will include a live, three-hour primetime special on Sunday, February 16.

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Under terms of the deals, according to a person familiar with the matter, each advertiser is expected to participate in bespoke promotions that could include social-media takeovers or endeavors tied to “SNL” talent. These efforts could surface in a wide variety of elements under NBCUniversal’s overall portfolio. Already, the “SNL” anniversary is expected to get some spotlight during the company’s telecast of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“‘Saturday Night Live’ is a cultural institution that has been etched into NBCUniversal’s storied history. For five decades, ‘SNL’ has been one of the most desired properties for marketers, and we are thrilled to have these Presenting Sponsors join us for the 50th anniversary season as we honor this iconic show,” says Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBCU.

Marshall’s ad-sales team has been working for the better part of a year to line up sponsors for the “SNL” anniversary. In March of last year, Lorne Michaels, the “SNL” executive producer, made a presentation in Studio 8H, the show’s longtime home at NBC’s New York headquarters, to around 100 advertisers about what to expect as the anniversary draws near. At the time, NBC sketched out plans for series of retrospectives around “SNL” as well as at least one documentary about the program.

“Saturday Night Live” generated approximately $74.7 million dollars in ad sales in 2022, according to Vivvix, a tracker of ad spending. That figure represents a 12% dip from the nearly $85.3 million “SNL” generated in 2021.

T-Mobile seems an obvious candidate for the anniversary sponsorship. The telecom giant has been one of the show’s biggest sponsors in recent years, according to Vivvix, and recently launched a commercial in which Chloe Fineman, one of the “SNL” cast members, portrays a “very important person” looking for perks and special treatment. The commercial emulates a parody Fineman once did for the show of con artist Anna Sorokin and the Netflix series “Inventing Anna” that appeared on Netflix. T-Mobile spent $2.72 million on commercials in the show in 2022.

Not mentioned in the aforementioned list of sponsors is Apple, which has been the biggest spender on ads in “SNL” for the past few seasons, according to Vivvix. The iPhone titan, which typically hawks its Apple Music service right after the first appearance by the musical guest in each “SNL” episode, spent $4.13 million on ads in the show in 2022, according to Vivvix, compared with nearly $5.27 million in 2021 and $7.61 million in 2020.

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