Nielsen, the marketing and advertising research firm, has just released the trend of ad spending on national network and cable TV. The report is full of what interests’ people about sports and choke full of facts about sports.

According to the report, $10.9 billion in advertising expenditure was generated on National TV last year, compared to $10.3 billion previous year. The biggest TV advertiser in sports was AT&T Wireless, with $423.5 million spent.

The rest on the list are – Bud Light ($210.2 million); Verizon Wireless ($207.7 million); McDonalds ($164.9 million); DIRECTV ($160.5 million); Geico ($158.1 million); Sprint Wireless ($147.4 million); Southwest Airlines ($143.5 million); State Farm Insurance ($127.5 million); and Miller Lite ($126.6 million). AT&T, Bud Light, Verizon Wireless, McDonald’s and DIRECTV all together has accounted a quarter (26 percent) of the total ad spend.

The inclination of ad spending during sporting events saw that cable has an increasing share of ad space, and is growing 37.3 percent year over year, compared to 5.9 percent for sports ad spending in general.

Super Bowl XVLI, the Place for Advertisers

The Super Bowl is an event known as much for its ground breaking advertising as it is for the game itself. The Super Bowl is the one time a year where you’ve actually got a massive, captive audience, and more importantly, everybody wants to see your ads. Several brands, including Chevy, Doritos and VW, have gone into launch mobile apps prior to the kick-off.

NBC is offering live streaming to mobile for the first time ever. NBC Universal has sold nearly all of its 30-second advertising spots for Super Bowl XLVI, expected to net about $4 million per slot.

Advertising time during the Super Bowl this year is estimated to cost $3.5 million per minute. Companies like Anheuser-Busch have already purchased 4 1/2 minutes of ad time. Pepsi has also got its slot, and will feature Melanie Amaro in one of its commercials.  Others spots you will see are ads from Coca-Cola, Doritos, Mars, Dannon Yogurt, Bridgestone, General Motors, Volkswagen, Kia Motors, Toyota, Hyundai, Audi, Century 21 Real Estate, and of course GoDaddy.

Chevy Introduces Super Bowl App for Super Bowl Event

General Motors’ Chevrolet division is expected to run several ads during NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast on Feb. 5.  The company has purchased multimillion dollar spots that will air during the event. In addition, it has plans for more interactive efforts to attract customers.

Chevrolet is releasing an app for the Android market and Apple App Store for mobile phones and tablets. The app will also available at chevy.com/gametime and will have wide range of activities, including trivia contests for users to win prizes throughout the game.

This is the first time any company has attempted such a large-scale app promo, which will enhance the game-watching experience and help them engage in the online conversation about the Super Bowl.  The company will offer prizes to winners along with Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John’s Pizza and Sirius XM Radio.

The Super Bowl broadcast is expected to fetch an average of $3.5 million per ad package. Chevy’s Super Bowl app also reflects marketers’ desire to entree to consumers’ social-media activity and in return earns some extra millions.

Shazam Joins the Party Too

After launching the first application for mobile music recognition on Apple devices, Shazam has since expanded into the TV programming and advertising industry.  The London-based company, which has developed automatic content recognition (ACR) apps for mobile phones and tablets, will increase its presence (and that of its ad partners) during next month’s Super Bowl broadcast on NBC.

Up to one-third of the commercials running during the Super Bowl will feature Shazam icons. Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Sony Pictures and Bud Light are likely commercials that will have Shazam icons during and after the game, prompting viewer interactions to connect online and offline worlds.

Shazam will allow Super Bowl viewers to interact with commercials during the game in order to gain information about a brand or access free content, but for that, viewers need to have the app installed on their devices and keep the app running during the game.

AdBowl, Another Super App for Super Bowl XLVI

AdBowl launched free iPhone App and invited super bowl viewers to rate the year’s most anticipated ads. The integrated marketing agency has also launched the popular ADBOWL website, where voters can rate the year’s most anticipated ads on either the ADBOWL.com website or through the ADBOWL iPhone App.

AdBowl, for a decade-long game day tradition, tracks what consumers think of the multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads. This time around, viewers can vote on their iPhone or Android device too.

The company will then post the complete listing of the results along with breakdown of the winners between midnight and 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 8^th.