SUPER BOWL: Commercials have 'ad'ded value

By Paul Lane/lanep@gnnewspaper.com
Greater Niagara Newspapers

February 04, 2008 09:33 am

— Because it is the most-watched program of the year, the Super Bowl is the launching pad of many advertisers’ most memorable and ambitious campaigns of the year — or maybe that’s the other way around.
Either way, with some 90 million game viewers on an annual basis, the commercials have become as integral part of Super Sunday as the action on the field.
The elite companies that land a spot during the game pay a steep price; a 30-second spot during today’s game cost $2.7 million, The Associated Press reported, more than double the $1.3 million a similar spot cost 10 years ago and way up from the $42,000 expense during Super Bowl I in 1967. Despite the price, the Chicago Tribune reported that Fox sold more than 90 percent of the available 30-second commercial spots by November, with companies spending millions more on big stars and effects to make their spots memorable.
“This is really the Academy Awards for TV ads,” Jack Martin with the Lockport-based advertising firm J. Fitzgerald Group said in an e-mail. “The stakes are definitely higher and keep going up each year — and the bar is raised each time in terms of creative (ideas).”
That’s no exception this year, with several advertisers announcing their plans well in advance. Anheuser-Busch, for example, is using humor in its ads for Budweiser and Bud Light to try to take its 10th straight USA Today Ad Meter popularity poll title — a string of wins that’s incorporated Bud Bowl, the “Wazzup” guys and the antics of Cedric the Entertainer.
PepsiCo., meanwhile, will unveil a silent spot where the actors will speak in American Sign Language, and Internet domain provider GoDaddy.com will continue its series of racy Super Bowl ads — this time settling for a spot that will consist entirely of telling viewers to log onto their site to see the real commercial that Fox wouldn’t air.
“Humorous ads. They’re the ones that people will talk about after the game,” Martin said. “This isn’t the place for the boring, day-to-day ads we’re subjected to. But the ads also need to strongly connect with the brand. Too many times people remember a funny ad, but not the company or product. Great ads feature both.”
Is it worth the cost?
Super Bowl ads that connect with viewers seem to benefit those companies, according to a study released this week by researchers at the University at Buffalo and Cornell University.
The study, which examined 529 commercials that aired during the Super Bowls from 1989-2005, found that investors favored the stocks of firms that aired likable commercials. Specifically, firms with the most likable commercials had higher than normal stock purchases following the Super Bowl, which increased the firms’ stock price. Firms with the least-liked commercials did not experience the same stock price reaction, but researchers found that no harm was done, either.
The findings show how people take mental shortcuts when making decisions that should be complex, said researcher Kenneth Kim, associate professor of finance in the UB School of Management. In this case, people bought stock because they liked a commercial instead of making a decision based on a firm’s long-term value.
“We’re probably all guilty of this bias in our everyday lives. When shopping for a used car, we might think that a clean car is a good car,” he said. “We might think a person with a nice haircut is a good person. We might think a tall person is a good basketball player.”
Stock prices are not the only indication of Super Bowl ads being effective. With 93.1 million viewers tuned in last year, the Nielsen Company reported that the game’s advertisers saw a collective 50 percent increase in Web traffic the day after the game, from 8.5 million unique visitors to 12.7 million. Snack food advertisers saw their sales increase a combined $33.36 million in the three weeks after the game compared to the three weeks before the game, while beer advertisers saw sales climb $20.72 million and cheese advertisers $18.87 million.
The bottom line appears to be that if a company has a few million extra dollars in the bank, it would be wisely invested in a Super Bowl ad, Martin said.
“I think as long as the creative (element) is solid and the message is appropriate to the audience, it’s worth it,” he said. “It has the ability to launch a company or further a brand message. But with that kind of money, it’s really an exclusive club that can afford to do it.”
High-tech component
This year’s advertisers will see their dollars stretch more thanks to online campaign components.
Fox Sports combined this year with MySpace and the NFL to create a Super Bowl-promoted MySpace profile for users of the Internet social network to gain access to streaming videos of the game’s ads. The ads will be available for viewing at myspace.com/superbowlads, nfl.com and foxsports.com. Other multi-platform options to be available include auto manufacturers providing a site for users to “build” their own cars, movie studios providing streaming trailers and food makers providing coupons.
Branching out online is especially important, Fox officials said in a release, because of the Internet’s expanding reach; almost 27 million viewers went online to learn more about Super Bowl XLI sponsors last year, while 10 million went online to see the game ads again.
Internet tracking firm ComScore, meanwhile, revealed in a survey released this week that 75 percent of those surveyed planned to use the Internet on game day; of those, 16 percent said they would log on to advertisers’ Web sites, while 13 percent said they planned to watch commercial clips again.
“Advertisers are looking to extend their reach beyond linear television to new platforms, and this massive, single-event drive to the Internet through the Super Bowl will provide them a chance to personally engage 140 millions consumers and will deliver on the promise of a truly interactive advertising experience,” said Jon Nesvig, president of Fox broadcasting sales.
ComScore’s study further found that 49 percent of those surveyed found the game to be the best part of Super Sunday, while 26 percent preferred the ads; males preferred the game 65 percent to 33 percent for females, while women preferred the ads 35 percent compared to 16 percent for men.
With this year’s matchup expected to approach the record 94.08 million viewers who watched the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1996, there should be no shortage of fun tonight even when the game’s on break, Martin said.
“Let’s face it, very few football games can stand up to the hype that sports journalists conjure up. But most everyone looks forward to a TV spot that makes them laugh and is memorable,” he said. “And they’ll remember the great ads long after they’ll remember who played in the game.”

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