When it comes to the Super Bowl, even many of the most diehard football fans will attest that the commercials are sometimes just as important and interesting as the game itself. That’s a fact advertisers have come to bank on.

With a projected 90 million viewers, and fewer opportunities for marketing due to the writers’ strike and the possibility the Academy Awards will not air, advertisers are counting on the Super Bowl more than ever.

“Ad sales for this year’s game have been much brisker than usual, and the demand is, in part, giving Fox some leeway to seek higher prices,” the television editor at Advertising Age, Brian Steinberg, said. A 30-second ad spot during the game carries a $2.7 million price tag, an increase of $100,000 from last year, experts said.

With the advent of TiVo and DVR, many advertisements attract fewer eyeballs than in the past, but during the Super Bowl, “people actively watch the ads, which can lead to better recall and strong brand building,” an associate professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, Jennifer Escalas, said.

Given the importance of Super Bowl ads, marketers are increasingly tapping innovative sources. Frito Lay’s Doritos, for example, will offer a new twist on last year’s campaign that featured an amateur ad spot culled from the company’s Web site. This time, the ad will be a professionally produced music video that was voted on by consumers. “I don’t know that this will gain as much attention as it did last year because it’s not as new,” Mr. Steinberg said.

Other contenders for most original advertising include Anheuser-Busch Co.’s mobile phone tie-in. After using their cell phones to vote for their favorite Anheuser-Busch ad, participants receive will a secret code to view an unaired Super Bowl ad online, as well as a National Football League ad spotlighting select football players relating entertaining stories that have been chosen by viewers’ votes.

“In an interesting twist, no advertisers are relying on consumer-created ads this year, perhaps reflecting the learning that creating a good ad is a major challenge,” a marketing professor with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, Timothy Calkins, said.

As for the company that’s expected to have the most memorable ads for this year’s game, insiders are predicting a myriad of choices, from Anheuser-Busch, which will have seven slots, to other perennial favorites such as PepsiCo, FedEx, and Victoria’s Secret.

In one of the Anheuser-Busch spots, a group of cavemen use the newly invented wheel to tote their beer.

“Budweiser ads are always worth watching for,” Mr. Steinberg said. “The company focus-groups the things to death and has developed a certain cadence of set-up and humor that make for something enjoyable, though at times formulaic.”

Pepsi’s pre-game ad may have viewers adjusting their television sets, as the 60-second spot is filmed in American Sign Language with open-captioned text. Titled “Bob’s House,” the ad features two men driving to a friend’s house at night to watch a football game. Unsure which house is Bob’s, the driver begins honking his horn, causing everyone in the neighborhood to turn on porch lights — all except the hearing-impaired Bob. “It is a striking spot that will certainly get people’s attention,” Mr. Calkins said. “I suspect it will build the brand in a very positive way.”

Mr. Steinberg added: “Had Pepsi aired the ad during the game itself, this would be a gutsy move. We expect Super Bowl ads to be loud and larger than life. Pepsi would have made a lot of waves by defying expectations.”

One ad expected to speak volumes is GoDaddy.com’s “Spot On,” spotlighting IndyCar racer Danica Patrick clad in a leather jacket that she suggestively unzips. “The spot should be much talked about,” Mr. Calkins said, adding that advertisers are often “pushing the edge of good taste and network approval to build brand awareness.”

New to this year’s roster of commercials are a host of more traditional advertisers, including Hershey, Kraft, Proctor & Gamble, and Unilever. “I think this change reflects the fact that even pragmatic marketers are beginning to see the value of the Super Bowl as an advertising vehicle,” Mr. Calkins said.

Cars.com will make its debut, as will Under Armour, a maker of fashionable athletic clothing. “Under Armour is sort of a hip brand, and the Super Bowl is viewed by teeming masses,” Mr. Steinberg said. “If you are a little too cute for the room, you just might miss your target.”

One demographic that advertisers are hoping to reach is the female audience. “Over the last few years, advertisers have come to realize that a lot of women watch the Super Bowl, so rather than the traditional beer and car ads aimed at men, we are seeing more and more aimed at women,” Ms. Escalas said, pointing to advertisements for Tide To Go and Unilever’s Sunsilk brand.

Even with the threat of a recession looming, the general consensus is that marketers will not shy away from spending their ad dollars. “Recession fears will have limited or no impact on sales because most of the spots were sold long ago,” Mr. Calkins said. “I suspect we won’t see a big decline in the price of ads any time soon … because it is the one time an advertiser can reach a major percentage of U.S. consumers at one time.”

Mr. Steinberg added: “The reason an advertiser chooses to get into the Bowl is often to make a big splash or to announce something new. So long as these people aren’t just throwing good money away or running a run-of-the-mill commercial, they ought to generate at least some chatter.”