$7 million for 30 seconds? It's worth it during the Super Bowl.

A cat meowing at Hellmann's mayonnaise, Peyton Manning throwing Bud Light beers at customers in a bar and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies. They all have one thing in common: these companies paid seven figures to showcase their products to viewers during this year's Super Bowl.

For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl was $7 million. Even as many companies become more disciplined with the money they have for marketing, and advertising spending has declined in recent years, the cost of a Super Bowl ad continues to rise.

The reason is simple: There's no way that's guaranteed to reach more people than the Super Bowl, and the slice of every other pie is getting smaller and smaller.

“It's a return to reaching everyone at once,” said Charles Taylor, professor of marketing at the Villanova School of Business.

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the number of opportunities for companies to reach large audiences through network television advertising has diminished. Popular shows, along with audiences, have increasingly moved to streaming platforms. Increasingly, networks are relying on live events, such as awards shows and sports, to attract viewers.

“Live events are still huge for advertisers, and those are the ones that get the most attention,” said Frank McGuire, vice president at Sharethrough, an ad integration platform.

However, not all live events are created equal. A record number of viewers watched the Emmy Awards in January. Leagues like the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have struggled to maintain and grow viewership, and ratings for the NCAA men's basketball finals have declined in recent years.

But the National Football League has continued its strong rise, both in terms of viewership and media deals. In 2021, television networks committed $110 billion for the rights to broadcast the league for a decade, and the NFL has continued to set record viewership numbers. More than 115 million people watched the championship game last year.

The Super Bowl stands alone as an opportunity for mass marketing on television. Ten years ago, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $4 million; ten years before that it was $2.4 million. Analysts say the increase is the result of supply and demand: With a fixed amount of time and commercials for each Super Bowl broadcast, competition is fierce. CBS, which is broadcasting Sunday's game, sold out its ad spots in November within weeks. Paramount, which owns CBS, will nearly a dozen spots are said to be running to promote his films.

“In this age of fragmentation, the Super Bowl is what television used to be,” says Brad Adgate, a veteran media analyst.

For years, Super Bowl ads were closely watched until the day of the game. Now companies use marketing campaigns that often start in mid-January.

“It's about building a long-running story,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, the chief marketing officer at DoorDash, whose Super Bowl ad is promoting a promotional deal this year.

Many viewers now turn on the Super Bowl broadcast with an idea of ​​what to expect from the ads. For example, a January preview of a Pringles ad featured an unidentified man's mustache, leading many fans to believe it belonged to Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. (In fact, it was owned by actor Chris Pratt.)

“You're not just paying for that 30-second spot; it's a four- to six-week buzz that you create,” says Mary Scott, professor of strategic communications at Montclair State University and former president of United Entertainment Group, a sports and entertainment marketing agency.

The increase in female viewers for NFL games this season, made even more prominent by Taylor Swift's relationship with Mr. Kelce, is another potential marketing opportunity for companies.

The news that Kansas City made the Super Bowl was welcomed by health and beauty companies, which disproportionately target young women. This demographic has been playing more football games this season, thanks in large part to Ms. Swift's appearances at games in Kansas City.

NYX Makeup, a subsidiary of L'Oréal, has bought its first Super Bowl ad spot, while Dove returns with an ad spot for the first time since 2015. ELF Cosmetics is advertising for the second year in a row.

Kory Marchisotto, ELF's chief marketing officer, acknowledged that playing Kansas City in the Super Bowl was good for business. Ms. Marchisotto said her company maintained several versions of ads in the days leading up to the game, a departure from the way Super Bowl ads used to be prepared. Companies want to remain as agile as possible and respond to the specific interests of the audience watching the game.

“It was much easier if you created a spot, spent a year on it, marketed it, sat back and let it fly,” she said.

At the same time, companies are investing more heavily to ensure they get the most out of their $7 million. This year, more ads are expected to include interactive components, such as QR codes, that will allow companies to track engagement with their brands in real time.

The technology debuted during the 2022 Super Bowl with a floating code for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company. The concept was used in more ads during last year's Super Bowl, including one for avocados from Mexico and one for a public service announcement from a religious organization. The strategy was also prominently featured during the NFL's first Black Friday broadcast in November.

Together, the Super Bowl ads provide an annual snapshot of the country's economic and social moment, said Ethan Heftman, vice president of agency sales at Ampersand, an advertising consortium owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox.

“As long as you have new industries — automotive, mobile and technology companies,” Mr. Heftman said, “there will always be brands looking for that broad awareness.”