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Have Super Bowl Commercials Been Sacked Asks Gallup And Robinson, Inc.

Advertisers paying top dollar for spots in the Super Bowl view them not as a popularity contest but as an important investment that is expected to pay its way several times over in increased branding and sales. There are several measures of sales potential in a scientific survey carried out Monday by Gallup & Robinson, Inc.(G&R), a communications research firm that has evaluated Super Bowl commercials for the past 16 years. Its data indicates that effectiveness of the typical Super Bowl commercial may be starting to decline.

This year’s survey found a fall off in several key attitudes relating to commercial quality. Those agreeing with the statement, “This year’s Super Bowl had some of the best advertising I’ve seen,” declined from 24 percent in 2004, to 21 percent in 2005, down to 7 percent this year. More negative attitudes on several other scales were consistent across gender, age and income groups.

As in past years, Anheuser-Busch lead the pack in sheer media weight, with a total of eight commercials. Budweiser, with three commercials, was the single most memorable brand advertised. Diet Pepsi was second, with two celebrity commercials. Four commercials with comical, product-related twists succeeded in highlighting Bud Light, which finished fourth.

But memorability isn’t everything. In all of its other performance measures, G&R saw significant declines. Fourteen percent fewer viewers said that they liked the average commercial this year compared to last. Three measures relating to persuasion and purchase likelihood declined an average of 11 percent. FedEx and GoDaddy.com provide an instructive contrast in this regard. Both were among the top five recalled brand names among both men and women. FedEx’s prehistoric air express delivery attempt was an attention-getting execution that underscored a product benefit. Viewers rated it their favorite commercial in the game and it was also the highest rated brand advertised. GoDaddy.com ran a revised and more confusing version of last year’s “wardrobe malfunction” commercial which ranked at the bottom of most attitudinal scales and was singled out as viewers’ least favorite commercial. Gallup & Robinson reported a very low overall correlation between commercial recall and its brand-related measures in the game.

Outstanding creativity, with insightful messaging, continues to find its audience. A low-key Dove commercial showed several girls with low self-esteem and directed viewers to a Web site for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. This execution was in contrast to the over-the-top comedy of most other Super Bowl commercials. Dove scored highest among women in creating more positive attitudes toward the brand (76 percent) and second highest in commercial likeability (78 percent). Without extravagant special effects, Dove achieved its communication goals with a thoughtful approach to an important human issue.

For more information, visit www.gallup-robinson.com.

     
   Director of Marketing
   Gallup & Robinson, Inc.
   Pennington,    NJ,    08534
   USA
   609-730-1550 (phone)
   paul.murphy@gallup-robinson.com
   www.gallup-robinson.com