Super Bowl
Research highlights include spending trends across advertiser categories, viewers’ reactions to ads, the impact on commercial ratings and the buzz generated in social media
New York, NY, February 5, 2008 – TNS media intelligence, TNS Media Research, TNS Media and Entertainment and TNS media intelligence/Cymfony have combined their respective areas of expertise to provide a multi-faceted analysis of Super Bowl commercial winners and losers.
TNS media intelligence ― Advertising Trends Across Brand Categories
Record-Setting Level of Ad Time
Super Bowl XLII featured a record-setting amount of network commercial time. Between the opening kickoff and the final gun, Fox aired 45:10 mm:ss of advertising messages. This includes paying sponsors, messages from the NFL and promotional plugs from Fox for its own programming. The past three games now occupy the top three spots in terms of Super Bowl ad clutter.
Network Ad Time (mm:ss)
In The Super Bowl Game |
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Year |
Total |
Brand Ads |
Network Promos |
2008 |
45:10 |
36:35 |
8:35 |
2007 |
43:05 |
33:30 |
9:35 |
2006 |
44:15 |
36:55 |
7:20 |
2005 |
40:15 |
35:20 |
4:55 |
2004 |
41:55 |
34:00 |
7:55 |
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Source: TNS media intelligence |
Category Wars: Battle of the Brands
Once again, Anheuser-Busch was the exclusive beer advertiser in the Super Bowl. While that’s not surprising, it sharply contrasts with the message clutter from movie studios and non-alcoholic beverage brands.
Eight different motion pictures were advertised in the game, the largest number of competing messages from any single category. This is consistent with recent years.
The noteworthy development was the surge in advertising from non-alcoholic beverages. Six different brands aired spots in the game, an all-time high for this segment. Besides the familiar presence of Pepsi and Coke sodas, there were competing messages for energy drinks (Gatorade; Amp) and flavored waters (SoBe Life; Glaceau Vitamin Water).
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# Of Unique Brands With In-Game Spots |
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Category |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
Motion Pictures |
8 |
4 |
9 |
10 |
9 |
Non-Alcoholic Beverages |
6 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
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Source: TNS media intelligence |
Combined, movies and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for approximately 30 percent of the paid ad time in the game.
TNS Media Research ― Second-by-Second Commercial Ratings
TNS Media Research analyzed audience viewing behavior during the game and the commercial breaks. The following highlights are based on unique second-by-second clickstream data collected from over 300,000 Households (HH) in the Charter Communications Los Angeles digital cable system:
- On average, 30.3% of HH’s tuned in to the game itself. The pre-game show averaged a 23.7% rating while over 33.7% of homes viewed at least one second of the post-game award presentation.
- 5.7% of HH’s viewed the game on FOX-HD, representing close to 19% of the total audience.
- As expected during the Super Bowl, few viewers tuned away from the commercial breaks during the game with the spot-to-program retention index averaging 100 (Commercial Viewing Index). The highest commercial retention score went to the Ford F Truck – F Series 30-second commercial, which posted a 112 in the spot just prior to kick-off. Not surprisingly, the lowest commercial retention occurred during the post-game as viewing dropped from a rating of 31.4% to 21.6%. The last pod, airing prior to House, averaged a CVI retention score of 78.
- A second-by-second look at commercial avoidance reveals that less than 1% of commercial seconds were avoided by channel changing.
Interestingly, the FOX-HD audience was even less likely to tune away, with only 0.5 percent of those seconds being lost, perhaps reflecting that almost all of the Super Bowl advertising was presented in high definition.
TNS Media and Entertainment ― Which Commercials Delivered on Their $2 Million+ Price Tag?
TNS surveyed online a nationally representative sample of 1,048 adults 18-54 years of age on Monday February 4, 2008, who watched the New York Giants Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots. All respondents were panelists from the TNS 6th Dimension Interactive Panel.
Levels of Recall
On average, each Super Bowl viewer recalled 39 commercials. The E*Trade Financial Services' commercial featuring the talking baby garnered the highest level of recall, being remembered by 70 percent of all Super Bowl viewers. This was closely followed by:
| - Bud Light: Jackie Moon |
(69% recall) |
| - Budweiser: Horse training to Rocky theme |
(67% recall) |
| - Sobe LifeWater: Naomi Campbell with lizards |
(67% recall) |
| - E*Trade Financial: Talking baby with clown in background |
(66% recall) |
Best and Worst Performing Ads
All 79 commercials broadcast during the game were evaluated on three dimensions among respondents who recalled the commercials:
- Commercial likeability
- Positive brand impact
- Future purchase consideration
These three components comprise the Commercial Performance Index (CPI). The best performing commercials based on the TNS Commercial Performance Index were:
| - Budweiser: Horse Training to Rocky Theme | (+387 CPI) |
| - Coca Cola Classic: Charlie Brown Balloon | (+373 CPI) |
| - Bridgestone Tires: Screaming Animals | (+352 CPI) |
| - National Football League: Living A Dream | (+321 CPI) |
The ads ranked with the lowest CPI were:
| - SalesGenie.com; Ramesh | (-307 CPI) |
| - SalesGenie.com: Pandas | (-237 CPI) |
| - Zantac | (-129 CPI) |
| - Sunsilk | (-118 CPI) |
A complete ranking of all Super Bowl ads is available.
Pod Position Effects
TNS researchers also uncovered an interesting finding: ads in the first pod position had higher average CPI scores than ads elsewhere in the commercial break. This has relevance to the ongoing industry discussion about commercial placement and commercial pod construction. More information is available on request.
TNS media intelligence/Cymfony ― Analysis of Buzz Generated in Social Media
TNS media intelligence/Cymfony analyzed the level of online discussion about Super Bowl commercials on social media. As of mid-day Monday, February 4, only seven brands were generating significant levels of discussion.
Brand |
Volume Index |
Favorability Index |
Anheuser-Busch |
2582 |
555 |
Audi |
1400 |
1267 |
Pepsi |
1363 |
425 |
Coca-Cola |
1236 |
4300 |
GoDaddy |
1109 |
-119 |
Bridgestone |
1109 |
640 |
E*Trade |
909 |
300 |
Volume Index: Indexes the number of posts each advertiser receives to the median number of posts for all advertisers.
Favorability Index: Represents the ratio of posts which reflect positive to negative sentiment toward the ad. A 100 index would indicate an even split between positive and negative.
High Volume of Discussion:
- Overall, viewers are highly positive toward the ads. Anheuser-Busch (representing the sum of discussion of all individual Budweiser and Bud Light ads) is getting twice the conversation of second place Audi.
- GoDaddy is getting significant discussion but it skews negatively. Strong negative feelings are, understandably, a driver of discussion.
- Coca-Cola discussion is extraordinarily positive – viewers enjoyed the Balloon and Carville/Frist ads. Both TNS’ CPI scores and Cymfony’s analysis also put Anheuser Busch, Bridgestone and E*Trade in the top tier. This year, ads with upbeat, positive messages were effective with consumers and also generated additional brand value in word of mouth.
Interestingly, a number of advertisers did well in CPI, but not in social media discussion, including NFL, Tide and most in the movies category.
Low Volume of Discussion
- Salesgenie.com has low volume, but the posts are strongly negative. Many of them express the opinion that the commercial used racially offensive stereotypes.
Please visit www.tns-mi.com/resources/creativeSuperBowl2008.htm for a complete log of all Super Bowl 2008 commercials and the full detail of TNS’ Super Bowl research.
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