The Psychology of Brand Marketing & Mentions for the Super Bowl

photo: Star Streams TV.com

How many times could an advertisement for one brand be mentioned during a sporting event?  A lot!

Sports brand marketing and sponsorships area a huge deal in the world of advertising. I want to take a peak into one of the biggest American sporting events each year. Why…because the whole world is watching. The most watched sporting event in 2012 was without question the NFL’s Super Bowl.

Super Bowl XLVI (46) between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took place on February 5, 2012. Super Bowl 46 was 

the most watched sporting event of 2012 receiving 111.3 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.com. Super Bowl 47 should be right at the top when 2013 is over. According to the Washington Times.com, Super Bowl 47 received 108.4 million viewers, which is the third most watched program in U.S. television history.

What is interesting to for me is to see the mindset of how brands prepare for major televised sporting events, as the Super Bowl, and the results of the ads. According to Ad Age.com, some social media sights were looking to get more involved in Super Bowl ads while other companies used celebrities.

Twitter was the one social network not too concerned with getting involved in the ads, because they were already apart of the grand scheme. According to Ad Age.com, Shiv Singh, head of digital at PepsiCo Beverages states, "As a brand and as a social network, Twitter is going to win the Super Bowl even without having an ad," That is a pretty powerful statement, but Mr. Sing did his homework. In the previous year of Super Bowl 45, Twitter tracked 10 thousand mentions related to Super Bowl 45 for the last three minutes of the game. Again, that is without Twitter even placing an ad. Social network company, Facebook declined to comment.

Ford’s luxury car brand Lincoln stated using a celebrity was the best route to go for Super Bowl 47 in 2013, according to Ad Age.com. A January 2011 Ad Age article stated celebrity statistics displayed a performance slump for advertising. “…fewer than 12% of ads using celebrities exceeded a 10% lift, and one-fifth of celebrity ads had a negative impact on advertising effectiveness.” Even though this may be the statistic, companies like Lincoln did let numbers like these stop their position on celebrity advertising. 

Sports Marketing Results

Blue Fin Labs.com is a TV analytics company from MIT that tracks social media information. According to Ad Age.com, the top three commercials to ignite on social sites within 45 minutes after the ad aired were the following:

photo: Blue Fin Labs.com

According to Sales Force Marketing Cloud.com, the top 10 brands to ignite the most buzz on Super Bowl 45 between February 3 – 4, 2013 were the following:

photo: Sales Force Marketing Cloud.com

As you can see the public reacted to what they felt was the most compelling. The brand that saw the most social media attention was Dodge Trucks “Farmer” ad. This was huge for Dodge and their brand. The crowd obviously loved what they saw, which meant Dodge did something right in their marketing preparation. The brand that saw the most ad attention was Anheuser Busch. Mashable Reporting Today stated it ranked third on the Super Bowl’s most watched ad list, according to Sales Force Marketing Cloud.com. Enough said for Anheuser Busch’s marketing approach.

No matter what, I believe marketing analyst must watch the stats and be brave enough to buck the trends every once in a while. The old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Always using the same old pitch will eventually strike out with younger viewers. Sometimes, you must go with your gut in order to get results!