Super Bowl Isn’t Right Ad Vehicle for All Brands
Not all programs are right for all brands, even if that program is the Super Bowl, according to the seventh-annual Super Bowl Engagement Survey, conducted by New York-based brand and customer loyalty research consultancy Brand Keys.
Assessments show that Denny’s, Hyundai and Budweiser are the three advertisers most likely to get the highest return on their Super Bowl ad investments, while Cars.com, E*Trade, Pedigree and Coke are likely to see far fewer returns.
Setting aside the question of quality creative, the survey brings into harsh relief the question being more loudly articulated this year than ever before: does the ad buy actually do anything for the brand?
“This is more than Monday-morning before, creative quarterbacking,” says Brand Keys founder/president Robert Passikoff. “Day-after creative reviews are always interesting. There’s a high water cooler effect,’ but advertisers should remember that buzz comes in two frequencies: positive and negative.”
Passikoff says that with the state of the economy, advertisers want to know more than that they were seen.
“It’s been a long time since consumers have been this uniformly aware of the economy, and brands that indulge in conspicuous consumption at $100,000 a second may find viewers tuning out their brand, even as they stay tuned into the game,” says Passikoff.
The 2009 survey was conducted among a national sample of 1,200 men and women, 18 to 65 years of age, who indicated that they were going to watch Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1. The research examines most of the brands advertising during the Super Bowl and is based on reports in industry publications prior to the survey being fielded the third week of January.
