Nielsen Issues 2008 Guide to the Super Bowl

The Nielsen Company last week released its annual “Guide to the Super Bowl,” which showcases a wide range of consumer and media information about the most notable marketing event in the U.S. - the NFL’s Super Bowl - scheduled for February 3 in Glendale, AZ, MarketingCharts reports.

Below, some key findings from Nielsen.

Television

(See table of Super Bowl-related TV ratings data.)

• As usual, the 2007 Super Bowl was the highest rated TV show in the U.S. for the year attracting more than 93 million TV viewers.
• The most-watched Super Bowl of all time was in 1982 with a 49.1 percent rating, which also happened to be the fourth-highest rated television program since 1961.
• In local markets, the highest overall local rating in 2007 - at nearly 56 percent - was in Indianapolis, IN., home of Super Bowl XLI champions, the Indianapolis Colts.
• As expected, men watched the 2007 Super Bowl the most (41.1 percent rating, or 43.2 million viewers), yet a significant number of women, Hispanics and African-Americans also tuned into the televised game:
  • Approximately 36.4 million women over the age of 18 watched the 2007 Super Bowl for a 32.2 percent average rating. Among women viewers, those age 25-54 had the highest interest, with a 32.9 percent average rating.
  • An average of 28.5 percent of African-Americans (about 10.1 million viewers), and an average of 15.5 percent of Hispanics (some 6.2 million viewers) tuned into Super Bowl XLI.

Online

• Super Bowl 2007 advertisers saw a collective 50 percent increase in web traffic the day after the big game, from 8.5 million unique visitors on Super Bowl Sunday to 12.7 million unique visitors on Monday. (See table of web traffic growth for Super Bowl advertisers.)
• Budweiser brands generated the most online buzz, with nearly 21 percent of buzz volume. (See chart of online buzz generated by advertisers.)
• The December 3 announcement of this year’s Super Bowl half-time show performer Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers ignited an 800 percent increase in online buzz compared with October 2007. (See chart.)

Advertisers

(See table of advertising-related info.)

• The cost for a 30-second commercial during the 2007 game was $2.385 million down from $2.5 million in 2006.
• Total spending for the 2007 game reached over $161.8 million.
• The categories that advertised the most during the 2007 Super Bowl included Beer, Automotive, and Soft Drinks.
• In 2007, Anheuser-Busch aired the most commercial time, while Cadillac had the most sponsorship air-time. (See table of brands seen/heard during 2007 Super Bowl.)

Music

• Halftime and pre-game performances have provided sales growth for music artists since the early ’90s.
• After last year’s Super Bowl halftime, Billboard reported that Prince’s album sales more than doubled.
• Rolling Stones in 2006: Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” album showed a 34 percent increase over the week before the Super Bowl.
• Paul McCartney in 2005: His 2002 live album posted a 542 percent increase in sales, while two of his greatest hits sets more than doubled (”All the Best” by 246 percent and “Wingspan: Hits and History” by 161 percent). Beatles’ hits album “1″ showed 72 percent growth.

Box office and DVD sales

• Box office sales continue to be lower on Super Bowl Sunday vs. typical Sundays in the winter months: US box office receipts, which averaged $30.7 million on a typical winter Sunday in 2006, fell to $16.4 million on Super Bowl Sunday 2007 (2/4/07) - a 47 percent decline.
• The top selling Super Bowl-related DVD since 2000 is SUPER BOWL XXXVIII, featuring the Patriots and the Panthers.

Shopping trends

• During the Super Bowl period, snack food had the largest incremental increase in total sales, and alcoholic beverage coolers had the largest percentage increase. (See table of product-category sales & growth.)
• Within the snacks category, tortilla chips are the most popular with a 29 percent increase in sales during the Super Bowl period and a $13.4 million incremental sales boost.

Demographics of football fans

• People in wealthy homes, which generally have more than a $100,000 income, are almost three times more likely to watch the Super Bowl as people in homes with less than $30,000 in annual income.
• NY Giants fans are more than twice as likely as New York adults to have bought sporting event tickets online within the past year.
• 15 percent of Boston’s Patriots fans belong to a household with an annual income of $150k or more.
• Ford (25 percent), Toyota (21 percent), and Chevrolet (15 percent) are the top three auto brands among Patriot fans in the Boston market

See Nielsen’s release for more information from its “Guide to the Super Bowl.”