Within the first 3 days after the Super Bowl, the top 10 ads created an average of $862,000 in earned video impressions, representing a 12.7% return on the cost of a Super Bowl ad spot, according to February 2012 analysis from Kantar Video. Overall, this year’s ads created $11.1 million in earned media through February 8, and experienced cumulative viewership of 148.6 million, a 267% rise from last year.
Creative Gets Rewarded
Over $2 million of earned viewership was created before the game began, spurred by early releasing strategies and boosted by media outreach, seeding, and paid advertising. Yet, the ads experienced their true bounce after the Super Bowl ($9.5 million), led by those with the most popular creative executions.
Looking at the automotive category, which commanded the most viewership, Kantar Video found that generic themes such as the thematic use of vampires (Volkswagen) and dogs (Audi) generated more recall in discussion when compared to ads featuring celebrities.
OOH Provides Audience Lift
Game-time Super Bowl ads weren’t only watched in the home, though. According to February 2012 data from Arbitron, of the 123.1 million people aged 18 and older who watched the Super Bowl in the 44 markets where the company’s rating service is deployed, 11.9 million watched the game outside of their homes. The out-of-home viewing audience delivered a 20.7% lift to the reported in-home viewing audience of 57.5 million viewers aged 18 and older in those markets.
For adults aged 25 to 54, out-of-home viewing delivered an audience lift of 23% over in-home only viewing levels, while for the segment of adults aged 18 to 49, out-of-home viewing delivered an audience lift of 25.4% over in-home-only viewing levels.
Other Findings:
- The automotive brands whose ads performed best in social recall were: Audi; Volkswagen; Toyota; Acura; and Honda.
- The out-of-home audience was highest during the first hour of the Super Bowl, with 18% of viewers age 18 and older watching outside of their home.
About the Data: The Kantar Video study equalized the value of the TV spots based on estimated CPM rates and the online unit length. The cumulative viewership data includes viewership from leading video distribution sites through February 8, 2012. The social recall analysis was conducted using natural language processing technology on online conversations surrounding top performing automotive ads only.
The Arbitron data is based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback.
