Super Bowl advertisers stock up on celebrity
Four in ten Super Bowl XLIV ads feature celebrities or pop music, with familiar icons and music from the likes of Kiss, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Abe Vigoda and Betty White scoring with consumers
GreenLight released the results of its GreenLight Ad Gauge for Super Bowl XLIV, revealing that more than 40% of TV commercials aired during the big game featured celebrities or pop music, a similar amount to the past two years. The full report can be downloaded at www.greenlightrights.com/blog
The GreenLight Ad Gauge analyzes TV advertising during the Super Bowl — the world’s biggest television event every year — as a barometer to identify trends in how brands are using celebrities and pop music in their TV commercials.
Key findings from GreenLight’s 2010 Super Bowl analysis include:
– 34% of Super Bowl ads had celebrity endorsements from the worlds of sports, film, television or music – many featuring older icons like Betty White, Abe Vigoda, Jim McMahon, Mike Ditka, Stevie Wonder and Chevy Chase
– 20% of Super Bowl ads featured pop music, with both contemporary artists like Beyonce and will.i.am to retro icons like Bill Withers and Kiss in the spotlight
– 41% of 2010 Super Bowl ads included either celebrity endorsements and/or pop music
– Just one brand — Intel — used a branded jingle, sung by a chorus of employees
“Retro is the new contemporary as advertisers tapped into pop culture ranging from Kiss to Abe Vigoda in their quest to make an entertaining and emotional connection with consumers,” said David Reeder, Vice President, GreenLight. “This is a smart move by brands because they can leverage the familiarity of these icons to get attention and generate some laughs without breaking the bank.”
The 2010 Super Bowl averaged a 47.2 rating/69 share, with an estimated 100 million viewers watching in the U.S. alone. Super Bowl ads this year cost an estimated $2.6 million.
Twenty brands featured celebrities in their ads including Snickers, Boost Mobile, Sketchers, Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, Motorola, Volkswagen and HomeAway.com. Twelve brands incorporated pop music into their ads including Papa John’s, Dr. Pepper, Flo TV, Kia and Audi. Some brands scored, and some fumbled, according to GreenLight expert David Reeder.
“Snickers scored big right off the top with Betty White and Abe Vigoda getting pummeled in a game of weekend warrior football,” said Reeder. “This is another solid entry in the series of Snickers’ subversively funny commercials over the last year — which have been effective and given new life to little seen or somewhat forgotten — read cheaper — celebrities.
Boost Mobile was among the brands that fumbled.
“Boost tried to reinvent past magic with Jim McMahon and Coach Mike “Da Bears” Ditka and a spoof on their oh-so-awful 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle music video,” said Reeder. “Despite faithful production values, the selling proposition of this spot was lost in an 80’s era music-video-smoke and bad choreography. Lesson to Boost Mobile — not everything gets better with age.”
To download the complete GreenLight Ad Gauge of Super Bowl XLIV, visit www.greenlightrights.com/blog
Allstate offers safety and insurance protection tips prior to Super Bowl
Fact: According to Hallmark Cards, Inc., the Super Bowl represents the No. 1 at-home party event of the year – even bigger than New Year’s Eve.
Super Bowl XLIV is hours away, and what will many Americans be doing? Hosting or attending a Super Bowl party! No one wants to spoil the fun of the big game, so Allstate Insurance Company is recommending tips to prepare and protect party hosts and guests getting ready for the big game.
Many party hosts don’t think about the liability risks that accompany a party. In some states, a host could be held liable if a guest is injured on his or her property. A host also may be liable if a guest has too much to drink and something happens. Fortunately, there are ways for hosts to protect themselves:
– Worried about a raucous guest falling and injuring himself in your home? Check your homeowners policy to make sure you have personal liability protection that provides adequate coverage for your home and assets. Liability protection provides coverage when others are injured or have sustained damage to their property for which you are responsible. If an accident in your home does happen, make sure the injured persons are comfortable and call for medical assistance if needed.
– What if that guest breaks your pricey antique vase in his fall – will your insurance replace it? Protect your home valuables – like fine art, collectibles or sporting equipment – with a scheduled personal property endorsement to your homeowners policy. Scheduled personal property provides protection for loss or damage to personal property items not always covered under traditional homeowners policies.
– Protect yourself and your guests. Provide non-alcoholic beverages to guests, and don’t let guests that have had too much to drink or drowsy guests drive home.
The party’s over, and your team won! Now, all you have to do is drive home and revel in your team’s victory. Unfortunately, drivers who are drowsy or have had too much to drink may be sharing the road with you and could make your happy drive home a dangerous one. Here are some tips to help protect your family when you’re traveling home after the big game:
Don’t drink and drive. If you know you will be drinking alcohol, use a designated driver or public transportation. Many cities even offer safe-ride-home programs.
If you spot an impaired driver on the highway, maintain a safe following distance and don’t attempt to pass.
Immediately report a suspected drunk driver by calling area law enforcement. Give police as much information (i.e., license plate number, make, model and color of vehicle, direction vehicle is traveling, physical description of driver) as possible.
Allow enough travel time, especially when traveling long distances. Drowsiness can reduce reaction time almost as much as drinking.
Don’t get behind the wheel when you are sleepy, and stop driving if you become sleepy while on the road.
Source: Allstate Insurance Company
Super Bowl ads rival game in 2010
Poll predicts ads will drive Web traffic and social media chatter
Super Bowl ads remain a big draw for viewers, with over 57 percent of U.S. adults who expect to watch Super Bowl XLIV planning to tune in as much or more for the commercials as for the game. This is a 5 percent increase from 2009. According to the latest Hanon McKendry/Mindscape at Hanon McKendry poll conducted online this month by Harris Interactive®, 71 percent of U.S. adults plan to watch Super Bowl XLIV, with 35 percent of those anticipated viewers watching equally for the ads as for the game and nearly 22 percent tuning in exclusively or predominantly for the commercials.
The 2010 poll also found that over 35 percent of those who watch Super Bowl commercials say they are more likely to visit an advertiser’s Web site after seeing a Super Bowl ad, up from 30 percent in 2009. Additionally, among online U.S. adults who watch Super Bowl ads, 48 percent say they are at least somewhat likely to discuss the ads on a social networking site.
“After five years of running this poll, I’d like to say that nothing surprises us,” said Bill McKendry, founder and chief creative officer at Hanon McKendry. “But even we were surprised at the level of online engagement that will be driven by Super Bowl ads. With 35 percent of viewers saying they are likely to visit an advertiser’s Web site and 48 percent of those engaged online stating they’d likely chat about the ads, the synergy between traditional broadcast advertising and digital engagement only appears to be growing.”
Building on the synergy between TV and Web, Hanon McKendry launched www.superadbowl.com in 2009, where visitors voted for their favorite Super Bowl ads after each quarter and got real-time results as they submitted their ballots. The site will go live again on Thurs., Jan. 28. In advance of the game, visitors will be able to weigh in on Super Bowl advertising via Twitter and Facebook and can cast their votes for their favorite ads starting at the close of the 1st quarter on game day.
The Hanon McKendry survey aims to quantify the draw of Super Bowl commercials among the more than 95 million anticipated viewers.(1) Now in its fifth year, the poll found interest in Super Bowl commercials even higher in 2010 than in 2009, when 52 percent of U.S. adult viewers planned to watch as much or more for the ads. The question that gets at online U.S. adult viewers’ likelihood to discuss a Super Bowl commercial on a social networking site is new in 2010.
While interest in Super Bowl commercials is growing among both men and women, the 2010 Hanon McKendry / Mindscape at Hanon McKendry survey confirms highest interest in Super Bowl ads among women:
– While anticipated female Super Bowl viewership remains statistically steady — 67 percent in 2009 vs. 65 percent in 2010 — the percentage of female viewers who say they’ll tune in as much or more for the ads has grown 5 percentage points in 2010, up from 62 percent in 2009.
– A significantly higher percentage of women than men who plan to watch the Super Bowl will do so at least as much for the commercials as for
the game — 67 percent of female vs. 48 percent of male viewers.
– Female viewers are 2.5 times more likely than male viewers to watch exclusively or predominantly for the commercials — 32 percent of female viewers vs. 13 percent of male viewers.
The Survey
Harris Interactive fielded the study on behalf of Hanon McKendry and Mindscape at Hanon McKendry between Jan. 8 and Jan. 12, 2010, via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,215 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The sample included 1,121 men and 1,094 women. Data were weighted using propensity score weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. Data for questions related to online use or behaviors were weighted specifically to the respective “online” populations. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
(1) In its annual Guide to the Super Bowl, The Nielsen Company reports that Super Bowl XLIII drew a record average viewership of 98.7 million, up from 97.5 million in 2008.
Source: Hanon McKendry