Hot Takes: Super Bowl LVI

This week we asked our esteemed TVREV Thought Leaders Circle members for their thoughts on the upcoming Super Bowl, how it plays out at a time when streaming is becoming much more prevalent and advertising is becoming much more targeted.

Field Garthwaite, CEO of IRIS.TV focused on how the Super Bowl is unique in that people actually look forward to seeing the ads and how getting your ads in front of consumers when they are open to hearing your brand’s message— is important the rest of the year too, especially given the unique targeting capabilities presented by CTV.

For a brand that wants to scale awareness and sales of their product—the Super Bowl is second to none. But it isn't the scale alone that makes it so special. During the Super Bowl, ads aren't annoying. The commercials are part of the experience. We actually look forward to seeing the ads during the game because we are in the right mindset to receive them and we expect them to be interesting, provocative, and culturally relevant.

This year marks another major milestone as CTV viewership is set eclipse broadcast except for tent-pole events like the Super Bowl. Despite this rapid growth, the CTV ecosystem is not without its challenges. But recent innovation in the marketplace–especially with regard to video data connectivity–has, for the first time, made it possible to target CTV ads at scale, based on the contextual nature of the video.

What does that mean for Super Bowl viewers? What we watch reveals a lot about us. While the Super Bowl doesn’t happen every day, it does tell us that it is possible to capture attention when you reach people in the right mindset. And, now with better video-level targeting, we can reach people in the right mindset–based on what they are watching on CTV. While I can't predict who will win on Sunday, I do know that media buying teams who use streaming video to align their ads with the right audiences in the right mindset will be the MVP’s in this increasingly CTV-centric landscape.

Michael Tuminello, VP of Strategy at Mediaocean looked at how the Super Bowl is reflective of the future of all live sports, especially as live sports moves to streaming, and the challenges that still holds for both consumers and advertisters.

Live sports is a critical battlefield in the war for converged TV supremacy, and it’s an area of particular interest because there is both a lot of activity and also in many ways a lack of real progress. On the activity side, we see Amazon and other tech players increasing investing in the right to broadcast key sports properties such as NFL football and the Premier League. On the lack of progress side, I still saw numerous network house ads when streaming a recent playoff game, it’s still extremely challenging to understand on which app to watch (for example) a given Manchester United game from the US, and as far as I know impossible to pay for single games of most sports a la carte. This particular battle is even more interesting because live games are fixed in time, and as such, mobile device coverage is just as important as CTV coverage. With the World Cup on the horizon, which if I’m not mistaken, broke streaming records for FreeWheel a few years back, the live sports streaming space will be under even more scrutiny as the gap between consumer desires and the interests of various companies either persists or perhaps finally starts to narrow.

Nick Cicero, Vice President of Strategy at Conviva looked at how we are finally at a point where we can get solid viewership data for live events that includes both streaming and linear numbers and the positive effect that will have on cross-platform advertising.

February 2022 is a major turning point in the history of “TV” Audience Measurement. While in previous years we’ve seen a lot of stitching together of data from various sources to come up with a comparable number that takes into account streaming, this year both speed and quality of measurement will be front and center. It’s truly the Super Bowl of data, as NBCU continues to push the industry forward in terms of content and ad measurement. With the continued rise of the streaming consumer with fluid viewership behaviors across a myriad of devices and platforms, companies like Conviva and iSpot are changing the way that digital and linear can be measured, making cross-platform campaigns scalable. I predict the way Super Bowl ads are bought and sold will never be the same.

Jason Cohen, CEO of MyBundle.TV looked at how Super Bowl broadcasters should think about reaching cord cutters and cord nevers in an increasingly streaming world.

As more consumers leave traditional TV behind, or choose skinny bundles that don't include local broadcast networks, reaching that growing group of streaming-only households will be trickier than ever. While the Super Bowl is available on Peacock this year, you will need their Premium tier ($4.99/mo - no Free Trial) to get it. It's a great event for Peacock to grow their subscriber numbers but might ruffle some feathers in the consumer and advertising world.

And $4.99 to stream the Super Bowl is a great deal! But, for events like the Super Bowl that depend on a massive reach to drive advertising dollars, what will happen if ratings do start to decline? Last year streamers may have had to download a new app (CBS Sports App) but they could watch the game for free. This year they will have to download Peacock and then sign up for Premium. While the Super Bowl is of course available to anyone with an OTA antenna for free, making it easy for consumers to stream with as little friction as possible is the name of the game.

Michael Scott, Head of Sales, Brand, North America, Samsung Ads noted the importance of brands leveraging their own first-party data to ensure they are adequately reaching their target audiences, even during mega events like the Super Bowl

Big sporting events like the Super Bowl have massive scale, but may not reach all of your target audience. It is important to understand who you are reaching with TV – whether linear or streaming. Advertisers get the biggest impact when they focus on their audience by leveraging first-party data and looking at more than just demographics. Rating Points are no longer enough, audience data is key. Data drives efficiency and reduces waste by focusing on the audiences that matter to you and also ensures that you’re positioned strategically as cookies deprecate. Today there are intelligence tools that identify and target households that have been over or under exposed and ramp up campaigns to maximize on ROI. This can be more cost-effective and targeted than a simple big game ad.

Justin Fromm, Head of Research at LG Ads Solutions spoke to the uniqueness of the Super Bowl as a television event in a world where advertising strategy is increasingly data and device driven.

Let's amend Ben Franklin's famous quote to read, "In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes - and the Super Bowl." The Super Bowl is the one TV event that is impervious to the decay of linear TV ratings and the shift of viewing to OTT sources. It is now the last day of the year where a content-based buying approach works for advertisers - the exception that proves the rule that audience- and device-centric buying approaches are the future of television.

Our TVREV take is that the Super Bowl is indeed a unicorn. To begin with, the commercials, and the buzz around them, are as much a part of the game as the halftime show. That means viewers will hear your message, though what they think of it will depend on the effectiveness of your creative. (In other words, creativity still matters.)

Sports on streaming is most definitely the future because, well, everything on streaming is the future. We do need to solve that 90 second lag thing which ensures that social media is celebrating the touchdown they saw on broadcast before the ball is even snapped on streaming.

Data will play a big role too in helping advertisers figure out if they really are reaching their target audience during the game and how to find those users they have missed on other platforms.

Finally, we look forward to seeing the real time data that NBCU, iSpot and Conviva are going to come up with around viewing. It should open a lot of people’s eyes as to how advanced TV data has become and how granular it can get.