Super Bowl and Super Ads: Was It Worth It?
Exciting game, memorable ads, according to post-game Ipsos ASI advertising survey
Download the complete results.
February 2, 2004, Norwalk, Connecticut—How does an advertiser get their money’s worth out of 30-second Super Bowl ad spot, reportedly costing a record $2.25 million? As a once-a-year advertising event, the Super Bowl delivers 90 million viewers, largely of hard-to-reach but lucrative male viewers, whose attentiveness results in extraordinary advertising recall, according to a post-game poll conducted by Ipsos ASI, The Advertising Research Company.
With this year’s exciting Super Bowl action, Ipsos ASI’s survey reveals that more people stayed tuned for the commercials than ever. During Super Bowl XXXVIII, 46% of respondents claimed to have watched all of the commercials, compared to 37% during Super Bowl XXXVII. Consistent with last year’s Super Bowl advertising survey results, respondents remembered an average of 3.5 ads. Accordingly, 89% of respondents could remember without prompting the name of at least one of the advertisers in the Super Bowl, while less than half could remember an ad from the Sugar Bowl or from the NFC Championship game.
"Successful, effective advertising is memorable advertising—not necessarily the most popular, funniest, expensive or most-hyped—and many of this year’s Super Bowl advertisers delivered with high recall scores," said David Brandt, Executive Vice President, Global Client Services, for Ipsos ASI.
The most memorable advertisements during this year’s game were for Budweiser (68% of respondents recalled an Anheuser-Busch ad) and Pepsi (54%). Not surprisingly, the most memorable advertisements came from the biggest advertising spenders; Anheuser-Busch had a total of five minutes of advertising, and Pepsi-Cola bought three minutes. Both companies were also top-rated in 2002 and 2003 Super Bowl advertising recall.
Ipsos ASI has been conducting post-game polls for the past three years that compare advertisement recall among men watching the Super Bowl with advertisement recall among men who watched other key playoff football games. The results show 46% of people watched all the commercials during the Super Bowl this year, compared to 37% of viewers during last year’s Super Bowl, while only 12% watched all the ads during the Sugar Bowl, and only 9% watched all the ads during the NFC Championship.
"The Super Bowl continues to be a fantastic environment for advertisers," said Brandt, "Even those advertisers who bought only one 30-second slot had successful recall with viewers." Topping the list of the "one ad wonders" for most remembered ads—from advertisers who only aired one ad during the Super Bowl—were Lays, 7-Up, FedEx and IBM.
Super Bowl advertising also included new product category entrants with Erectile Dysfunctional pharmaceuticals Levitra and Cialis placing ads during the game. There was also a greater presence of automotive advertising with six different advertisers: Cadillac’s advertisement was the third-most memorable Super Bowl ad this year, while Chevrolet and Ford placed in the top seven.
Methodology
Ipsos ASI conducted interviews via the Internet with adult males between the ages of 21 and 60 after each game. A total of 883 adult males were interviewed in the three waves: the Sugar Bowl between LSU and Oklahoma on January 4, 2004; the NFC Championship between Carolina and Philadelphia on January 18, 2004; and the Super Bowl XXXVIII between Carolina and New England on February 1, 2004.
About Ipsos ASI
Ipsos ASI is the premier global provider of advertising research solutions for advertisers around the world. Founded in 1962, Ipsos ASI has offices in 14 countries, with annual revenues of close to $100 million. Ipsos ASI is headquartered in Norwalk, CT, with North American offices in Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Montreal, and Toronto. It is a member of the Ipsos Group of companies, the third largest survey-based marketing research firm in the world.
For more information, please contact Pam Maltby at Ipsos ASI by email at , or phone at (203) 840-3660.