NFL Super Bowl Sponsors Were In The Game But Did Fans Notice?

Two days after the Super Bowl, just over half (55%) of loyal NFL fans correctly recalled Pepsi as the presenting game sponsor and a paltry 12% recognized Bose presence in the big game. One week later, Pepsi is out as halftime sponsor and Bose is opting out of its NFL headset deal. Both will continue some relationship with the league.

News reports suggest Nike and Pepsi cleaned up with nontraditional media exposure if the amount of time brands are visible in-game is counted. Elevate, working with Hive using Mensio software, estimate Nike (46 minutes), Pepsi and Gatorade (9 minutes), and Bose (8 minutes), led the way, followed by about one minute a piece for Toyota, Verizon, New Era, and SoFi.

But, impressions do not equal impact. The question is:

Who noticed?

A national poll conducted among NFL fans two days after the 2022 Super Bowl by Wakefield Research Partners reveals a few surprises for selected presenting sponsors of the Super Bowl on NBC and for the NFL partners that appear on the field.

Presenting Sponsors

Presenting sponsors receive additional mentions following commercial breaks once the broadcast returns to the stadium and the game. NBC prominently presented the sponsors in a pop-up screen as displayed below.

The poll asked fans to indicate which (randomly displayed) sponsors were mentioned during the NBC game broadcast as official presenting game sponsors aside from any commercials shown during breaks. Other competing brands that did not advertise in the Super Bowl were also included to reduce bias in aided recall.

Winners: Pepsi (55%) and Bud Light (52%) topped the list, followed by DraftKings (42%) and Toyota (41%). In the only head-to-head battle of network sponsors, T-Mobile (39%) outperformed Verizon (34%). Relative newcomer, Caesars Sportsbook (35%) kept pace with the big spenders in the wireless category.

Winners might include brands like FanDuel (27%) who fans said they recalled even though FanDuel promoted around but not on the big game broadcast. Past Super Bowl advertisers, Coke (25%) and Miller Lite (20%) were still associated as presenting sponsors of the game without any commercials this year. Nissan (23%) ran its ad during a commercial break, but fell far behind Toyota as the presenting sponsor of the halftime show.

Losers: YouTube (17%) was the presenting sponsor of the pregame show and prominently featured as a presenting sponsor in the first quarter of the game. Nearly as many thought non-advertiser Apple TV (15%) was the presenting sponsor. The combination of timing and indistinct messaging brings the YouTube strategy into question.

Timing Matters

The charts below show that some brands like Bud Light, DraftKings, Uber Eats, Verizon, Michelob, and Caesar’s performed much better among NFL fans who watched the whole game. Fans who checked out after the halftime show missed some of the prominent messaging in the second half of the game. The implications are obvious for advertisers in the second half of less competitive games.

Worth noting is the relatively steady presence of Toyota with its more evenly distributed messaging, including the halftime show, and the quick fade of YouTube from the minds of fans who watched past the first quarter.

One reason Pepsi (not shown) might be out as halftime sponsor is that how much of the game fans watched had no significant effect on recall. As other research shows, brands with fun, friendly and social personalities like Pepsi get little lift from official sponsorships, compared to boring brands that need the association as official sponsors to make them relevant to fans.

Brands in the Game

In the same national poll, NFL fans were asked,

“Including during the pregame, halftime, game, and postgame, but NOT counting TV commercial breaks, which brands did you see in the stadium, on the field, or in-camera view or were mentioned during the game broadcast?”

View the Tableau visualization of the NFL sponsor poll complete results with segment analysis here.

The aided recall of Pepsi (45%), Gatorade (34%), Nike (30%), and SoFi (29%) suggests impressions were made, but not necessarily in keeping with the amount of screen time recorded. Brands endemic to the game like Nike and Gatorade are likely to be recalled whether fans watch much of the game or not. While SoFi’s recognition is encouraging, nearly as many identified Rocket Mortgage (26%) as one of the brands “in the game.”

Disconcerting is the lack of recognition for New Era (7%), the official NFL sideline cap, and Bose (12%), the official NFL headset. Faring as well or better are Riddell (10%), who no longer makes the NFL helmets, and Fanatics (13%), who is an official NFL partner but did not appear during the Super Bowl broadcast.

Conclusion

These results point toward the trend of brands “being there without actually being there.” Brands with no network ads or in-game presence like Miller Lite and State Farm can activate around events with more targeted, integrated digital and social executions with fans likely to engage with the brand.

Being there does matter, but not unless the brand strategy integrates the Super Bowl into its ongoing campaigns. In the poll reported here, recall of presenting sponsors was higher among the 30% of fans who read Super Bowl ad related content prior to the survey, including: Pepsi (+10%), YouTube (+8%), Uber Eats (+7%), and Verizon (+6%). In contrast, none of the other sponsors measured posted significant gains from related press coverage.