With a massive audience set to tune in to Super Bowl XLVIII, both hardcore gridiron junkies as well  as casual fans, the National Football League (NFL) title game brings a huge opportunity for exposure to companies willing to pay the steep prices.

Fox, who will televise the game this year, has sold out their advertising blocks for Super Bowl XLVIII, with spots selling up to $4 million for 30 seconds of nationwide exposure across all demographics.

"They do it because if it is successful, the gain is tremendous," said Mike Ozanian of Forbes Magazine.

Companies - such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, PepsiCo, Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors - investing ad dollars into Super Bowl commercials hope to see the gains that Steve Job and Apple attained 30 years ago after promoting their brand during Super Bowl Super Bowl XVIII with a commercial debuting their Macintosh computers while equating IBM computers with a bleak Orwellian "1984" future.

"Apple saw a huge spike in Macintosh sales. It was incredibly effective, it was emotional and I think ever since then, that was the benchmark and is still the benchmark today that people use to decide whether or not a super bowl ad is effective," said Ozanian.

One of the main reasons that the Super Bowl attracts so much attention from corporate America and Madison Avenue is that in the technological era of DVRs, where viewers can watch their favorite program at their leisure while bypassing commercials, the Super Bowl is live "must-see-TV" that has to be viewed in real-time, unlike the sporting events such as the Olympics and award shows like the Oscars. Last year's Super Bowl drew 108 million viewers, down from Super Bowl XLVI's record-setting 111.3 million viewers - the most watched television even in US history.

"You and I don't want to show up to work on Monday and say, 'I want to watch the Super bowl on tape tonight,'" said Ozanian. "We want to watch it live. And that is the main reason why the Super Bowl, which is going to have more than 100 million people watching it live, commands the price for advertising that it does."

This year, Fox bundled their advertising packages, having recently launched a new sports network looking to take on ESPN's dominance over the market, and offered advertising spots to be that be paired with the Super Bowl telecast and to air on Fox Sports 1. Annual Super Bowl ad revenue has soared from $213 million to $292 million over the last decade, with Super Bowl XLVII earning $240 million for CBS last year and NBC making $220 million in ad dollars for Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, generating greater revenue than the World Series ($247.6 million in ad sales) and the final three games of the NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament ($198.5 million in ad revenue).

"One factor that drives [Super Bowl ad sales] more than anything else is fear, because the Super Bowl has grown to be such a big deal, particularly among companies who have done it regularly," said George Parker, author of "Confessions of a Mad Man". "If they dropped out and sales did decline these guys would be hung out to dry."