This month, Anheuser-Busch InBev hosted a dozen or so reporters at its airy New York office to discuss its advertising plans for the Super Bowl.

Company-branded folders labeled “Media Briefing” were distributed. A news release detailed the four beer labels that would be featured in commercials during the game, on Feb. 5, with instructions to keep the information under wraps until the next morning. Also included: a brochure outlining “fun facts” for each brand — Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Budweiser and Busch — and a business card with a website and email address for “all of your A-B Super Bowl needs.”

Absent from the event, which included an hourlong presentation from the company’s United States marketing head: the commercials themselves. Three of the four, the company said, were slated for online release in the lead-up to the big game.

The briefing illustrates the effort companies put forth each year to market the most expensive commercial space on TV. The average cost of a 30-second ad for the Super Bowl crept up to $5 million this year, according to ad buyers, from an estimated $4.8 million last year. Brands, eager to get their money’s worth, may spend anywhere from 25 percent of that cost to the same amount on marketing tied to the ads themselves, said Mary Scott, a president at UEG, a sports and entertainment marketing agency.