Working with media? Here’s what you need to know about the Super Bowl!

The greatest show on earth is almost upon us. Sunday the Super Bowl will kick off and the ad prices will soar for a few hours. And especially in the US, people will be glued to the TV screen. In a new study we show that 68% of all Americans* – corresponding to almost 200 million Americans – plan to watch Super Bowl LI. That would be a new rating record.

Even though an increasing share of our media consumption takes place on mobile devices, Super Bowl is still very much a TV phenomenon. Practically everybody – 97% – will watch Super Bowl on TV. However, 15% will simultaneously watch the game on another device besides TV. Respectively 11%, 8% and 10% will watch the game on their computer, tablet and smartphone.

Super Bowl – much more than football

When Super Bowl LI takes place this Sunday it is not only the football people are looking forward to. The commercials transmitted during the game are just as much a part of the show.

Compared to ordinary TV commercials and online video commercials, Super Bowl commercials are much more liked among the Americans. While 39% like ordinary TV commercials and 31% like online video commercials as many as 72% like the commercials made specifically for Super Bowl.

The Americans are actually so fond of the Super Bowl commercials that 43% actively seek out the best ads online during and after the game. And that’s not exclusively people watching Super Bowl. Almost a quarter – 23% – of those who don’t watch the game will still find and watch the Super Bowl commercials on various digital channels.

Not surprisingly, YouTube is the preferred channel to watch the Super Bowl commercials, but also Facebook and news/media websites are widely used. Among those who seek out the Super Bowl commercials online, 93% will use YouTube, 51% will use Facebook and 24% will use media/news websites.

With so much attention on Super Bowl ads, it’s no some of these commercials has become almost legendary like the 1984 Apple commercial.

But which commercials are the most memorable – or in other words the first to pop in mind.

With stand alone commercials the list is as follows:
1) Puppymonkeybaby (Mountain Dew) 2016
2) Frogs (Bud)  1995
3) Darth Vader (VW) 2011
4) Mean Joe Green (Coca Cola) 1980
5) Doritos birth (Doritos) 2016

It’s impressive that the Mean Joe Green commercial from 1980 makes the list and actually the Apple 1984 is number 6.

The Budweiser Clydesdale is by far the best recalled ads among the respondents. However as a long series of ads it’s in a category of itself with the latest ‘Lost Dog’ as the highest ranking stand alone ad.

Among brand the top two brands stood out with several commercials mentioned, while the other brands mostly had one or two big ones carrying them.
1) Budweiser
2) Doritos
3) Coca Cola
4) Mountain Dew
5) VW

Super Bowl on social media

Social media is an integral part of our life. That includes Super Bowl. Nearly half of the viewers – 45% – plan to use social media for Super Bowl related stuff while the game takes place.

Particularly Facebook will be widely used – by 87%. The closest competitors to Facebook are Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat which respectively will be used by 49%, 40% and 29%.

Primarily, the social media will be used to post and comment (78%) and read other people’s posts and comments (77%). Additionally, 44% will use the social media to read news related to the game while 42% will check stats about the game.

*The study is based on 1100 respondents in the US online population in the age group from 15 to 75 years.