Super Bowl Commercials Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Video Advertising

Super Bowl 2016 was watched by 111.9 million US viewers. And dad would have asked, “How many people would watch a brand’s video ad online if it wasn’t a Super Bowl commercial on TV?” Super Bowl Commercials on TV vs Online It’s not clear that everyone who watches TV viewer is paying attention to the commercials. Distracted viewing environment during Super Bowl parties explains why views of the digital video versions of some Super Bowl commercials spike AFTER the Big Game. And if you analyze YouTube’s list of the Top 20 Super Bowl ads released during those years, then you’ll find that 90% of the ads were released on YouTube before the Super Bowl that year, including Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” and Volkswagen’s “The Force.” The importance of pre- and post-game viewing of Super Bowl ads is reflected in the decision to change the voting process for USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. This also means that the Super Bowl commercials seen on TV are only the tip of the digital video advertising iceberg. Check out the list, but here's the top 5: Budweiser Budweiser Super Bowl - "Puppy Love" (2014) Clash of Clans Clash of Clans: Revenge (2015) Volkswagen The Force: Volkswagen Commercial (2011) Budweiser Budweiser Super Bowl “Lost Dog” (2015) Pokémon #Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl (2016) The folks at Google also supplemented the list above with this additional data: The top 20 Super Bowl ads on YouTube from the last nine years have driven over 440 million minutes of watch time — the equivalent of watching the Big Game over 1.8 million times. Views of Super Bowl content are already up 8% in 2017 compared to the same time last year. All-time cross-platform views on TV spots or ads placed online is over 2.2 billion of those views. Yes, Volkswagen’s Super Bowl ads did well in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. So, Volkswagen decided it wouldn’t advertise during Super Bowl 2015.” Super Bowl Advertising Tips So, here’s some tactical advice: Stop using “views” to measure your success.

Author: Greg Jarboe / Source: Tubular Insights

It’s that time of year when video marketers get together and wonder what their company or client could have done with the $5 million that will be blown on buying a 30-second TV spot during Super Bowl 2017. The traditional excuse has always been that the money will buy a ton of eyeballs. Well, just how many eyeballs are we talking about? Super Bowl 2014 was watched by 111.5 million US viewers in the United States. Super Bowl 2015 was watched by more than 114.4 million US viewers, which was the Big Game’s high-water mark in term of TV audience. Super Bowl 2016 was watched by 111.9 million US viewers. So, that’s an average of 112.6 million viewers.

Meanwhile, eMarketer estimates that YouTube had 180.1 million US users in 2016. eMarketer also estimates that nearly 85% of digital video viewers are YouTube viewers. Now, my mother was a math teacher. And she would have expected me to be able to calculate that an audience of 180.1 million YouTube viewers is 59.9% larger than 112.6 million network TV viewers. But, my father was a brand marketer. And he would have expected me to know that “1984,” the TV commercial that launched the Apple Macintosh during that year’s Super Bowl, had been a watershed event as well as a masterpiece in advertising. After “1984,” Super Bowl commercials became the most expensive, creative, and influential advertising on television. And dad would have asked, “How many people would watch a brand’s video ad online if it wasn’t a Super Bowl commercial on TV?”

Super Bowl Commercials on TV vs Online

It’s not clear that everyone who watches TV viewer is paying attention to the commercials. According to Google’s Consumer Barometer, 52% of people use their connected devices (smartphones, computers, and tablets) to go online while watching TV. Their use of multiple devices means that many people are multi-tasking, with 82% of their Internet usage unrelated to TV programing.

And even if people are attending Super Bowl parties, it’s not clear that they’re watching TV. Distracted viewing environment during Super Bowl parties explains why views of the digital video versions of some Super Bowl commercials spike AFTER the Big Game. For example, if you missed a TV commercial that someone else says was one of their favorites, then you can see the online version on Monday so you can discuss it with your friends, family, or colleagues, too. Of course, some people can’t wait to discover, watch, and share an exceptional video before everyone else is their social network.

This explains why so many Super Bowl advertisers upload their digital video ads weeks BEFORE the Big Game. Understanding the social dynamics that occur whenever you invite a group of friends, family, or colleagues to come to a party to watch a tent-pole event on your big screen TV, these savvy video marketers upload their digital video ad ahead of time so someone in the family room will shout to the crowd out in the kitchen, “Hey, here’s that video I was telling everyone about. Check it out!”

According to the Official YouTube Blog, “Advertisers that upload early do better overall.” The share of Big Game ads released on YouTube before game day grew more than 200% from 2008 to 2016. And if you analyze YouTube’s list of the Top 20 Super Bowl ads released during those years, then you’ll find that 90% of the ads were released on YouTube before the Super Bowl that year, including Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” and Volkswagen’s “The Force.” The importance of pre- and post-game viewing of Super Bowl ads is reflected in the decision to change the voting process for USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. The big change in 2017 is that voting on ads that have been revealed to the public will begin on Wednesday, February 1, at noon ET. Another notable change is that voting will remain open until 1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT the night of the Super Bowl.

All of this has turned Super Bowl Sunday into a tent-pole event that starts right after the NFC and AFC Championship games and lasts about a fortnight. This also means that the Super Bowl commercials seen on TV are only the tip of the digital video advertising iceberg.