In a world where social media and digital advertising are growing by leaps and bounds, and where people are increasingly attached to their mobile devices, you could expect a drop-off in the appeal of TV advertising during the country’s biggest televised event.

To check this hypothesis, we commissioned Survata to poll 500 Super Bowl viewers (adults age 18+) to uncover their attitudes toward and behaviors with TV advertising during the game.

Our key takeaway is that America is still infatuated with Super Bowl advertising — and because of digital, social, and mobile platforms, they have even more opportunities to engage with it.

From our poll, three key themes emerged:

1. The Ads Make the Super Bowl

A Super Bowl without advertising just wouldn’t be a Super Bowl — the two are inextricably linked. Not only is the advertising critical to the game broadcast, it also serves to make the experience more fun. For a significant number of viewers, it’s the advertising that’s the main source of entertainment.

2. For the Ads, It’s More than Just Game Day

The advertising is more pervasive than it’s ever been, appearing in more places and giving people the chance to voice and share their opinions during the days leading up to and following the game itself. Several days before Super Bowl 50, we are finding that a significant number of viewers have already seen some of the ads, and more plan to do so before the game. For Super Bowl advertisers, it’s key to have a pre-, during and post-game strategy.

3. The Ads Are Conversational Currency

Super Bowl ads are powerful; they have our nearly undivided attention, and they play to it. They make us laugh, cry and pay attention to issues. They surprise us, and they become the topics of conversation. Given that these conversations are often conducted online and in real time, the ads will be talked about as much as, if not more than, the game itself.

In Summary

The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of live television and a powerful showcase for brands and advertising. In a world that’s becoming more compartmentalized, siloed and hyper-personalized, it’s a big opportunity for brands to rise up, capture attention and become widely known.

Despite all of the changes in the media and technology landscape, this poll proves that the ads during the Super Bowl are a fundamentally important part — and even a catalyst — of this shared national experience.

Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is a full-service marketing communications agency, named “Best Small Agency of the Decade” by Adweek. Learn more at bssp.com.

Survata is a technology-driven consumer research company serving
thousands of clients globally, from Fortune 100 brands to leading ad
agencies to major hedge funds. We are the simplest way to conduct
high quality survey research online. The company is based in San
Francisco.