137 Million Reasons Why Super Bowl Advertisers Won Big - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

By now, we all know that the 2010 Super Bowl was the most watched television show in history. Also, many are also aware of the grass roots fan campaign that has sprung up on Facebook helping to secure an upcoming appearance on Saturday Night Live for the 88-year old Betty White, motivated by her Snickers commercial (with Abe Vigoda).

But it wasn't just Betty White or the Snickers commercial that got people buzzing after the Super Bowl. In fact, Super Bowl advertisers as a group enjoyed quite a big "lift" in consumer word of mouth about their brands following this year's game, according to Keller Fay research.

How big is big? In the week following the game there were 137 million more conversations about advertised brands than those same brands enjoyed during the pre-Super Bowl period. That represents a 20% increase in word of mouth—far larger than the 6% increase we saw following the 2009 game, and also larger than the increases following the 2008 (+16%) or 2007 (+15%) Super Bowls.

The biggest word of mouth "winners" each enjoyed word of mouth increases of more than 10 million conversations in the week after the game. Bud Light, Coke, Denny's, Doritos, Dr Pepper and Honda all earned a spot in this 10 million + club.

Those of you who were following the results of the USA Today Ad Meter, an oft quoted measure of consumer response to Super Bowl ads, will recognize that three of these advertisers (Doritos, Bud Light, and Coke) were also strong performers in the USA Today Ad Meter. The other three, however, were not high performers on that rating system at all. In fact, Dr Pepper and Honda were ranked as far down as # 45 and 47 respectively by the Ad Meter, while Denny's was #18.

The moral of that story—the ads that people "like" are not necessarily the ones that get them talking about advertisers' brands. And ultimately, it's the brand conversations that drive business results. Indeed, the Super Bowl word of mouth is not just idle chatter. Almost half of the word of mouth conversations about the Super Bowl ads as a group included active recommendations to buy or try the product, and among consumers who were on the receiving end of advice about the advertised brands, almost 6 in 10 intend to purchase the product.

Another reason for results to differ from the Ad Meter is that many of the advertisers target particular demographics—males or females, younger or older—so success is best measured based on the response of the targeted segment. The 2010 Super Bowl was unusual in that the increase in advertiser WOM was twice as large among women (+26%) as men (+13%). Advertisers that had the largest gains among women included Doritos, Bud Light, Budweiser, Vizio, Coke, Denny's, and Intel.

The 2010 Super Bowl commercials also had cross-generational appeal. Like Betty and Abe—who were tackled in the Snickers football commercial by players the age of their grandchildren—brand conversations involved a wide range of ages. The biggest increases in average advertiser WOM were for teens (+53%) and adults 60-69 (+83%).

In an era of increasing fragmentation, the Super Bowl stands out as one of the few consistent venues in which marketers are able to talk with consumers at once—across the gender divide, and across generations. When done right, it can be a highly social opportunity for viewers, and a profitable one for marketers.

Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group, has been called "one of the most recognized names in word of mouth." The publication of Keller's book,The Influentials, has been called the "seminal moment in the development of word of mouth." Ed can be contacted at ekeller@kellerfay.com.

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