The Super Bowl advertising playbook – omnifunnel, omnichannel, omnipresent

Super Bowl LV was indeed unprecedented – from taking place during a pandemic with limited fan attendance to Tom Brady being the oldest to ever play in the big game and Tampa Bay being the first time to win the championship at its home stadium

From an advertising standpoint, the key stat is that more than five million people per minute live-streamed the event. 2021 was the year the Super Bowl truly was a truly omnichannel experience.

In the month leading up to the game, Mediaocean found that brands with committed Super Bowl LV spots had a combined TV social lift of 74%, versus 67% for brands that advertised in Super Bowl LIV but sat out this year. In other words, there’s a significant halo effect around brands that advertise in the Super Bowl – around a 10% bump – and that’s before we even get to kickoff. Once the game is on, it's clear that featured brands gain a massive boost on social media.

Of course, social media lift is not the only reason to buy a Super Bowl commercial. It can also stimulate interest at other consumer touchpoints. It can lead traffic to websites. It can lead to higher email open rates. And, in normal, times it can drive in-store visits – it’s truly omnifunnel.

The key for brands buying Super Bowl ads – or any other ad for that matter – is to look beyond the spot and make it part of an omnichannel strategy. In today's world, people consume media simultaneously and seamlessly across screens. Brands need to create a surround-sound experience and make sure their message is omnipresent. Leveraging technology that can orchestrate ads across platforms and measure the resulting consumer actions is critical for success in a modern media world. The playbook is clear – it’s all about the X’s and O’s – omnifunnel, omnichannel, and omnipresent.