ITV hopes for £10m Euro final payday

ITV could make more than £10m in ad revenue from tonight's all-English Champions League final, with major brands flocking to the event - including Ford, which is launching a $60m (£30m) pan-European TV campaign. Huge interest in the first all-English final, between Manchester United and Chelsea, has led ITV to speculate that viewer numbers could hit 13 million across around two hours of live coverage.

The broadcaster has lined up an array of top-flight advertisers for the final including Nike, Heineken and Audi - as well as some more unusual names, such as BlackBerry, which is thought to be running its first TV campaign in the UK. Ford Europe is using the event to launch a TV campaign, created by Ogilvy Advertising in London and Stockholm, to launch the four-wheel drive "crossover" car Kuga, which will compete against models such as Toyota's Rav4. The car manufacturer, which is launching the multimedia campaign across 21 markets, is committing around £30m to the campaign, around £6m of that in the UK market.

ITV will make close to £9m from TV advertising during the final, and more than £10m if the match goes to extra time and penalties, according to Havas-owned media agency MPG. The advertising bonanza compares with between £2m and £3m in ad revenue for a typical Wednesday night schedule and between £3m and £4m for a Champions League final with no British presence, said MPG.

Advertisers have been flocking to book Champions League final ad spots, which have rocketed in price from between £100,000 and £150,000 for a 30-second slot in a final with no UK teams involved to as much as £250,000 for tonight's match. "On top of a hugely valuable football fan demographic, this type of event gets people watching who are not heavy TV viewers. It is a unique opportunity," said Gary Digby, the customer relations director at ITV. "The market will pay what it will pay. We have sold out so they [the ads] are at a price the market thinks is sensible."

Digby added that the contest could easily crack a live match average of 13 million viewers because of the presence of United - which attracts more viewers than other top-flight English clubs - particularly if the match went to extra time. United's last-gasp 2-1 victory in the 1999 Champions League final attracted a peak audience of 19 million viewers.

Ford's TV ad opens with a woman waking up and running outside to find that an entire city has been covered over - from street level to the tops of buildings - as a giant white canvas. The ad states: "We keep following the same old design rules. Imagine if we could start again with a blank canvas." It finishes with a Ford Kuga rolling through the "white-out" of the city.

Ogilvy Advertising used 53,475 sq ft of artist's canvas, most of which was recycled after the shoot. The commercial was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, who was also responsible for the Guinness "Tipping Point" and Sony "Balls" ads. Ogilvy Advertising estimates that Ford's ad will reach an audience of around 360 million across Europe when it airs during the final. Ford used last year's Champions League final to launch the "Balloons" TV ad to promote the launch of its new Mondeo model.

Last year's final, which saw Liverpool lose 2-1 to AC Milan, attracted a peak audience of 10.1 million viewers and a live match average of 9.5 million. The 2006 final, which saw Arsenal lose 2-1 to Barcelona, drew a peak audience of 12.2 million viewers and a live match average of 11.2 million. And Liverpool's epic 2005 win over AC Milan after extra time and penalties saw an average of 10.8 million viewers and a peak audience of 14.6 million.