By Peter Himler, Founding Principal, Flatiron Communications, LLC, @peterhimlerAs branded sports sponsorship goes, there is no more powerful spotlight than an overt plug during the Super Bowl telecast. And Sunday night, the plugged brand’s marketing team no doubt convulsed with tears of joy when the game’s winning quarterback Peyton Manning delivered it organically to an audience of more than a billion viewers.A paid promo? All is not what it seemed.First, I should remind you just how valued a split second of national TV airtime can be to a sports marketer. I remember one measurement company tallying the on-air seconds its client’s brand logo appeared during a NASCAR race as justification for the millions the client spent to paste its logo on the side of the car or a patch on the driver’s uniform.The Super Bowl telecast is the granddaddy of all sporting events from a marketer’s vantage point. The Oscars is a distant second. Brands gleefully pay the broadcast network a $5 million tariff to air their 30-second TV commercials, which also amplify across social and news media, adding millions to their value.So how does one calculate the ROI for Budweiser after Peyton Manning cited the brand, after family, but before God, in his post-game interview. Not once, but twice! How does $14 million sound?

I also took notice of the pre-game show when the players were being introduced on the field. The cameras caught Mr. Manning still seated in front of his locker genuflecting while very plainly guzzling a Gatorade, which actually is one of his commercial endorsersalongside Nationwide Insurance and Papa Johns Pizza, among others.As it turns out, Anheuser-Busch’s communications chief set the sponsorship record straight by tweeting this:Leave it up to ESPN’s sports business reporter and prolific twitterer Darren Rovell to stumble across the real motivation of Mr. Manning’s affection for Bud and his diss to Disney:Mashable’s Heidi Moore concluded:[author] About the Author: In his award-winning career in public relations and strategic communications, Peter has led the media teams for some of the world’s most esteemed global agencies. He served as EVP/Chief Media Officer for Edelman Worldwide, which he joined after 11 years with WPP’s Burson-Marsteller as EVP and head of that agency’s U.S. corporate and strategic media team and its worldwide spokesperson. Peter is president of the Publicity Club of New York and is active with the Center for Communication, the New York Tech Meetup and the Social Media Collective.[/author]