It was a record. Over 111 million people saw the Giants beat the Patriots. Madonna’s halftime show was judged one of the better in recent years. The commercials got mixed reviews, as usual. But, most interesting for us was the behavior of the millions who watched it.
Jimmy Kimmel had a funny bit the night after the game. He showed videos of viewers when the plug was pulled and their TVs went dark. So focused were viewers on the moment that this sudden interruption produced behavior that was as strange and frightening as it was humorous. We’re left to wonder why such behavior is so unique to Super Bowl.
It’s no surprise that as many people watch the Super Bowl as much for the commercials as for the game. What did surprise us was the InMobi Mobile Consumption Survey which reported nearly 40% of viewers used their mobile devices during the game to either discuss commercials, get additional information about an advertised product or watch commercials a second time.
MotelyFool.com reported some interesting facts:
- An estimated $10 billion was wagered on the Super Bowl
- 1.25 billion chicken wings were consumed over the weekend
- An estimated 49.3 million cases of beer were sold
- Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Domino’s combined to sell roughly 4 million pizzas
- 8 million pounds of guacamole was consumed on Super Sunday
- 1.5 million TV sets were sold during the week of the Super Bowl
- Sales of antacids increased 20%
Old Milwaukee Beer rolled out a new TV commercial to an estimated 15,180 homes in one market, North Platte, Nebraska. Crazy you say. Nope. Even given the miniscule TV audience, it was reported the Old Milwaukee commercial managed to outperform some of the nationally broadcast Super Bowl commercials in an increasingly important metric of Super Bowl advertising. Bragging rights chatter on social-media networks.
The Huffington Post observed that research slated to appear this month in the Journal of Advertising, measured 112 people’s responses to ads during a high-suspense game and a low-suspense game that featured a win or a loss. More exciting games, like the Giant’s last minute victory, yielded more positive reviews of the commercials and brands than unexciting ones. No real surprise here but it makes you wonder why there was so much criticism of viewer engagement in this year’s commercials. Maybe advertisers are resting on old laurels rather than looking for fresh approaches.
In all, there are a number of lessons to be learned. Marketers can ill-afford to ignore social media as a powerful and growing force and those who are most creative in using the channel to promote their brands at Super Bowl time will be far ahead of the pack.
It’s not unexpected that food traditional to Super Bowl day continues to be popular. But Super Bowl brings out once a year behavior in that isn’t so evident. We’d suggest leading edge marketers, with not so obvious connection to Super-Sunday, consider this as prime time for studying how their brands and products could more strongly embed themselves into the national conscience.
Finally, there is a thread of the strange but true. Each Super Bowl seems to bring surprises that cause one or two brands to be remembered long after the hoopla is over. We might refer to this as a guerrilla tactic and define it as something different, something unexpected, something a bit off-kilter, something startling. Searching the behavior of your customers and prospects in relation to this year’s Super Bowl just may spark inspiration for how you’ll be that breakout brand at the Super Bowl next year.
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