It is that time of year again and everyone will be sitting around on the second Sunday this February, asking that perennial American question: Do all of these Super Bowl ads really pay off?
Yes. No. Sometimes. Needless to say, the answer is a bit complicated.
With television ads topping a whopping $8 million this season, it can be hard to believe that companies will earn their investment back. Whether or not they do is determined by a variety of factors: 1) what is the marketing objective associated with the investment and 2) how are companies measuring their returns?
For example, some companies may focus on brand-building activities such as expanding awareness, protecting brand equity by staying top of mind of their customers, and defining their brand positioning or differentiation. They want to communicate how they are different from competing brands.
Other companies may try to affect direct sales by getting first time buyers to choose their brand. They may also try to increase sales by getting their current customers to buy more.
The first challenge in answering whether these ads are effective lies in understanding what are the firm’s marketing objectives and how they will measure success. Measuring brand awareness is challenging because of the subjective nature of a brand. Is it merely the degree to which customers can recognize the brand? Is it capturing a customer’s perceptions, feelings, or emotions of the brand?
The second issue associated with measuring their investment returns lies in the difficulty of measuring things other than sales. It is nearly impossible to measure the buzz around the commercials.They There is often a lot of often discussion about Super Bowl commercials on social media, so even though the initial ad buy may not have been worth the spend, the subsequent free publicity may be more valuable than the ads themselves as it more effectively shapes consumers attitudes.
Studies have generally supported the conclusion that Super Bowl advertising exerts a positive relationship in firm performance.
Although these studies do support a positive correlation, they really don’t answer the fundamental question: are these Super Bowl ads worth it?
Here, we have to consider the following: there is no other media event that comes close in terms of audiences like the Super Bowl. With well over 100 million expected viewersin the U.S., it remains the premier platform to reach such a broad audience. But it is not just any audience; the demographics are key. About 75% of viewers are 18-34 years old and just over half (54%) are male. Half of viewers aged 65+ also watch.
With the rise of social media and the proliferation of streaming services, consumers attention has fractured and few, if any, major cultural media events still command such a large audience.
So, does it pay off to spend during the Super Bowl?
For new products, yes. It is a great platform to build brand awareness and educate the public about your company. The entire run-up to the game, combined with a social media and public relations buzz campaign, can pay incredible dividends.
This requires marketers to focus on the long term and combine Super Bowl ads with their longer-term marketing campaigns to ensure multiple brand touchpoints.
However, a lot can still go wrong.
It’s essential to have a compelling ad that grabs the consumers' attention and accomplishes your advertising objective. If you screw up the execution, you’ll be remembered as an utter failure. Remember Bud Light’s conservative-media-led backlash when they featured a transgender influencer?
It’s estimated that the resulting boycott cost Bud Light more than $1.4 billion in sales.
So, are Super Bowl ads worth the investment? Again, the answer is complex. Firms can get closer to a yes by ensuring they are clear about the marketing objective, choose the right metrics, play the long game, and implement the campaign with an engaging, memorable ad.
In a nutshell, yes, no, maybe, it depends.
