Super Bowl Ads: An Empirical Investigation of the Advertising-to-Sales Relationship

Abstract

The aura surrounding Super Bowl commercials is unique in American culture. These in-game ads are closely watched and critiqued by millions of television viewers in a manner that is both entrenched and ritualistic. Fueled by the relentless media hype that surrounds them, these ads attract an eclectic audience comprised of both Main Street and Wall Street viewers. In summary, Super Bowl telecasts are routinely the most highly watched programs aired on television, its viewers are as interested in the ads as they are in the game, and the athletes and advertisers share the stage in this high stakes, high profile buzz-driven entertainment environment.

While the size and make-up of the audience which views the ads are fairly predictable, the results that the ads generate are much less apparent. It is commonly known that airtime cost exceeds $100,000 per second, and ad production and merchandising expenses represent millions of dollars beyond that. With this cost meter running at full tilt, it is apparent that something dramatic needs to occur on the revenue side for firms to re-coop their investments.

The purpose of this manuscript is to investigate this advertising-to-sales relationship through the study of five product categories which were commonly represented in the array of 2009 Super Bowl ads. These include soft drinks, sports drinks, beer, cereal, and salty snacks. This type of brand-specific, Super Bowl advertising analysis has not been reported in the literature before.

Below are the research questions which this study investigates.

1. Do brands which receive in-game Super Bowl advertising support experience significant sales lift, and if so, for how long?

2. How do the sales of Super Bowl promoted products compare with the sales of competitive products which do not receive similar in-game advertising support?

Regarding this study's methodology, The Nielsen Company, a global leader in market research and online intelligence, Need a comma here was contacted and generously gave this researcher permission to analyze their proprietary scanning data for the weeks surrounding the 2009 Super Bowl. Access was restricted to bar-code scanned data from one large retail chain in one large metropolitan area. A non-disclosure agreement included the prohibition on referencing any specific brands analyzed.

Sales data on 501 products for the weeks ending January 31, February 7, February 14, February 21, and February 28„ 2009 were analyzed. These items included ten products which received in-game advertising support for the 2009 Super Bowl February 1, 2009. Analyses included weekly dollar sales for each product as well as percentage changes in the dollar volume of those products for same store sales versus comparable weeks in 2008.

Regarding results, of the nine Super Bowl promoted brands represented in this study, the two salty snacks brands and one of the two soft drink brands consistently outperformed their category for each of the first three weeks following the Super Bowl. If this same pattern were replicated across the nation, then these sales increases alone would more than pay for the investment in Super Bowl ads.

The beer brands promoted in the Super Bowl also experienced robust sales, but did not outperform their category. This is in part because the entire beer category generated hefty sales during this study period. Given that beer sales for Super Bowl promoted products were uniformly strong, and got stronger in weeks following the game, the link between advertising and revenue again appears solid.

With respect to cereal and sports drinks, the results were mixed. The sports drink brand which chose to invest in Super Bowl advertising did not fare as well. Ironically, this brand utilized the talents of Tiger Woods and other celebrities to promote its expanding line of sports drinks. This brand experienced sales declines in three of the four weeks following the Super Bowl. Given that this was long before the Tiger Woods PR debacle, the results provide little evidence that a positive advertising-to-sales relationship existed for this brand within this period of study.

Finally, with respect to cereal, the Super Bowl promoted brand in this study did experience very strong sales growth for weeks two, three and four following the game. This sales growth averaged approximately 33 percent for these three weeks, suggesting that the high profile attention this brand received during the Super Bowl may have resonated with the buying public in the market studied.

It is important to exercise caution and not over-generalize these results. First of all, it is not suggested that these Super Bowl ads are causing sales results. Rather, this paper identified the association between these advertisements and sales. There are numerous reasons why Super Bowl products may do well in the marketplace including distribution strength and brand loyalty. Implications for advertisers and researchers are discussed, as are study limitations and future research directions.

摘要

在美国文化中笼罩在超級碗杯周围的商业气氛是独ᅳ无二 的0 这些体育赛事中的广告被数以万计的电视观众密切矢注 Mo 由于媒体的不辦炒作，这些广 告吸引了包括主街和华尔街 观光者在内的电子观众。总之，超级碗杯转播通常是收视率最 高的f 目，观众对这些广告有A与对此体育赛事ᅳ样浓厚的兴 趣。运动员和广告商一起分享这个高风險，高利益躯动的娱乐 环境中的盼段。

最然观看广告的观众数目是可以预测的，但是广告所产生的 结果却不是那么明显。众所周知，每秒钟的电视广告播放费用 高达 100，000美元, 而广告制作和营销费用更是高达百万美 元。由于所耗费的成本高昂，所以公司益然需要考虑利润方面 来平衡他们的投资。

本文的目的是通过研究五个在2009年超级碗杯广 告 中最具 代表性的五个产品类別来探索广告-销售的关系。这些广告类別 包括饮料，运动饮料ᄍ卑酒，谷物麦片和咸味小吃。这种品牌专 门化，超级碗广告分析没有在以前的文献中出现过0 下面是本研究的研究问题：

1. 在超级碗广告中 的品牌是否従进销售，如果是，这种影 响可以持续多长时间?

2. 在超級杯中傲广告的产品和那些没有得到相似的体育赛 事中的广告支持的同类竟争产品相比，销售量有何不同?

关于本研究的研究方法，尼尔森公司是全球顶尖的市场询研 和 网 络情报公 司。它懷慨的 允许我们 分析他们2009年超级杯 期 间 几个星期 的扫描数据。访 问被限制在大都市地区中的大型 零售连销店的数据。 一个非公开的协议包括禁止任何具体的品 牌参考分析。

我们分析了 2009年 1 月 31 曰， 2月 7 曰， 2 月 14 曰， 2 月 21 日和2月 28 日这几个星期的501 种产 品的销售数据。这些 问项 包括十个在2009年2月 1 日 的2009年超级杯上傲广 告的 产品。分析包括每种产品的每周销售额和这些产品在同样的商 店在2008年同 时段的销售 额的百分比变化0

结果部分，本研究中九个在超级杯中傲广告的品牌，两个咸 味小吃和ᅳ个软饮料品牌在超級杯开始后的前드个星期ᅳ直表 现良好。如果相同的模式在全国范围内复制的话，增长的销售 额将超过超级碗广告的投资。

p卑酒在超级碗推广 品牌也经历 了 强劲的销售，但并没有超越 其类別。这个结果的部分原因是在此研究期间，整个碑酒类产 品形成的高销售额。由于超级杯宣传的p卑酒类产品的销售一律 很强，在超级杯开始后的几周则更强，所以广告和收益之间的 联系又得到了巩固0

有关谷物麦片和运动饮料的结果比较复杂。 选择在超级杯中 打广告的品牌并没有获益甚多。极刺的是品牌选释老虎伍兹和 其他明星来宣传其运动饮料。这个品牌在超级杯ᅳ个月赛事的 头드个星期经历了销售额的下滑0 鉴于此之前，老虎伍兹公关 的惨败，结果很少提供的任据表明，在此研究期间，该品牌存 在叙极的广告-销售关系0

最后，有关谷物麦片，在超級杯比赛开始后的第二，第三和 第四个星期中此品牌并没有显示出 强劲的销售增长。这三个星 期销售额的增长额约为33%0 这表明在超级杯中受到高度关注 的 品牌可 以在 市场研 究 中 表现 出 来0

仔細谨慎的总结这些结果是非常重要的0 首先，结果不表明 这些超級碗广 告造成的销售业绩。相反，本文确定 了 这些广告 和销售之间 的联系0 有很多原 因可以解释为什么超級碗中的产 品能在市场中可以表现良好包括分销优势和品牌忠诚度。本文 讨论了对广告商和研究者的启示和研究局限性和未来的研究方 向0

Keywords:

• Super bowl
• Advertising-to-sales
• In-game commercial
• Brand
• Sales

另键新:

• 超级碗
• 广告销售
• 游戏中的商业
• 品牌
• 销售 I