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
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
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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2008
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2007
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2006
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2005
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2004
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Category
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|
|
|
|
|
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Motion Pictures
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8
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4
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9
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10
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9
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Non-Alcoholic Beverages
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6
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4
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2
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1
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3
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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.
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Brand
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Volume Index
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Favorability Index
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Anheuser-Busch
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2582
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555
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Audi
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1400
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1267
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Pepsi
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1363
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425
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Coca-Cola
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1236
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4300
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GoDaddy
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1109
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-119
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Bridgestone
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1109
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640
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E*Trade
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909
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300
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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.
About TNS Media Intelligence
Established in 23 countries with more than 16,000 customers, TNS Media Intelligence is part of TNS, the global marketing insight and information group. TNS Media Intelligence monitors 3 million brands worldwide across a multitude of media, including TV, radio, print, Internet, cinema and outdoor. The company offers a full range of insights and analyses, including the tracking of advertising expenditures and advertising creative, as well as news and social media monitoring and sports sponsorship evaluation.
In the U.S., TNS Media Intelligence is the leading provider of strategic advertising intelligence to advertising agencies, advertisers, and media properties. The company's tracking technologies collect advertising expenditure and occurrence data, as well as select creative executions, for more than 2.8 million brands across 20 media in North America. The U.S. headquarters are in New York City with sales locations in major markets throughout the United States.
http://www.tns-mi.com/
About TNS Media Research
TNS Media Research provides internet, TV, and radio audience measurement worldwide. The expertise and technology of this international operation supports audience services in over 30 countries, including Canada, China, Russia, Spain, the UK and the US. TNS is at the forefront of the latest technique on digital audience measurement, involving set-top box Return Path Data.
http://www.tnsglobal.com/
About TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony
TNS MI/Cymfony tells brands and companies what people are saying about them - whether the people are bloggers, traditional journalists or even influential consumers. TNS MI/Cymfony sifts and interprets the millions of voices at the intersection of traditional and social media to gain insights that help companies identify the people, keep on top of the issues and respond to the trends impacting their business - at the speed of the market. We call this approach to harnessing this new dynamic "market influence analytics."
TNS MI/Cymfony pioneered the innovative technology to extract meaning from high volumes and diverse sources of text. U.S. intelligence agencies have been relying on our technology for more than eight years. We are an innovator in the integration of social and traditional media, offering access to the greatest breadth of content sources and analytical expertise.
http://www.cymfony.com/
About TNS:
TNS is a global market insight and information group. Our strategic goal is to be recognized as the global leader in delivering value-added information and insights that help our clients to make more effective decisions.
As industry thought leaders, our people deliver innovative thinking and excellent service to global organizations and local clients worldwide. We work in partnership with our clients, meeting their needs for high-quality information, analysis and foresight across our network of over 70 countries.
We are the world’s foremost provider of custom research and analysis, combining in-depth industry sector understanding with world-class expertise in the areas of Retail and Shopper Insights, Stakeholder Management, New Product Development, and Brand and Communications. We are a major supplier of consumer panel, media intelligence and internet, TV and radio audience measurement services.
TNS is the sixth sense of business.
http://www.tnsglobal.com/
