The USA's biggest marketing event keeps getting bigger: an in-depth look at Super Bowl advertising in the 1990s

Abstract

Over the last decade, US Super Bol advertising has evolved into a unique phenomenon. US advertisers love the Super Bowl because it has reached an average television audience of over 120 million US viewers for the last 10 years. This manuscript examines the popularity of Super Bowl advertising during the 1990s. Every Super Bowl advertisement aired in the USA during the 10-year period 1990-1999 was video taped and viewed. In addition, USA Today's published Super Bowl advertisement likeability results were incorporated into the analysis. A total of 454 national advertisements were examined with regard to advertisement likeability. The impact of humour, advertisement length, animals, celebrities and product category type on advertisement likeability was assessed with the help of a comprehensive Super Bowl advertisement likeability model. It was hypothesized that each of these variables would be positively related to Super Bowl advertisement likeability. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that all these factors except the presence of celebrities had a strong significant impact on advertisement likeability scores.Based on these findings,this paper provides advertising strategy recommendations for future Super Bowl advertisers and marketing academics.