Image from: Superbowl / Shutterstock

Each year, the Super Bowl attracts a significant audience that is not limited to any one specific demographic.  As a result of its vast reach, it has become a very attractive and expensive opportunity for companies to market their product(s).  Based upon this significant investment (near 4 million dollars per 30 second in-game spot), and the importance of its return, Kantar Media Compete conducted a top-line analysis to measure the impact the advertising has on visitation to each advertised company’s brand site.

The analysis leverages Compete’s industry leading two million member panel that is normalized to be representative of US internet browser population.  To be included in the analysis, the company must have advertised during the game and must have a measurable online presence.  For example, Chevrolet was not included because it advertised only during the pre-game show, while Doritos was not included because of low visitation to its corporate site fritolay.com.

The following data are based upon Compete’s Online Daily Reach metric which measures how many people visit a website as a percentage of all U.S. Internet users on a particular day.

Early Auto Top Performers:  By the time of data cutoff (Sunday, January 27th) several auto manufacturers have already preleased their Super Bowls ads.  However, only two have received a notable spike in Online Daily Reach to their tier 1 brand site, both of coincided with pre-release Super Bowl activities (see chart below).

• Toyota: Online Daily Reach to Toyota.com increased by 200% on 1/24
• Audi: Online Daily Reach to Audiusa.com increased by 107% on 1/27

Early Non-Auto Top Performers:  By the time of data cutoff (Sunday, January 27th) several non-auto manufacturers have also preleased their Super Bowls ads.  However, only one has stood out from the pack with a significant spike in Online Daily Reach (see chart below).

• Axe (Unilever): Online Daily Reach to theaxeeffect.com increased by 716% on 1/25

Looking Ahead:

As the Super Bowl approaches, interest in the ads and the ensuring traffic to brand sites will grow. Early returns suggest Toyota and Audi, as well as Axe, are priming the pump and generating buzz that can carry over to game day and beyond. And while pre-game buzz is important and attracts interest to the brand, interest will swell the day of the game and into next week. The “after life” of these ads will go a long way to determining how well they drive engagement with the brand.

Both advertised and non-advertised companies seek to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of Super Bowl advertising. So who will win the battle? Compete has the ability to answer and provide recommendations on the following:

• Social Media Impact via referral volume from Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.
• Engagement Impact on brand sites via shopping tool visitation, time spent on site, etc.
• Auto Specific: Third Party Site Impact based upon aggregated brand shopper volume
• Lastly, stay tuned for our post-game analysis that will include data through Feb 4th