Super Bowl winners aren't just football teams, business professor says

Posted 01/23/01

The Super Bowl has been called the biggest advertising event of the year. So is the game more about advertising than football? And who will be the winners?

According to Kevin Keller, Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, "the Superbowl is a great showcase for advertising ... but not everybody should be there. You can divide advertisers into three main groups: the pros, the hopefuls and the clueless." He describes the categories as follows:

The Pros, such as Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and FedEx, have been there before and know exactly what they are doing. They skillfully use highly creative advertisements and create entertainment value to reinforce their brand awareness and image. They are almost always the big winners.

The Hopefuls, such as Levi Strauss, Volkswagon, Accenture, are well-known brands who typically do not advertise during the Super Bowl but are using it to draw attention to a much broader strategic plan. They are using the Super Bowl setting to kick start or accelerate their ad efforts in other areas. They may not be Super Bowl winners, but may end up 12 months later as the year's big winners.

Finally, the Clueless group consists of more inexperienced advertisers who aren't exactly sure why they are there. They see the Super Bowl as a means to set their brand apart but don't really know how to skillfully develop ads to take advantage of being on such a large stage. There will be a lot less of them this year, if any ... last year a number of dot-com companies overspent their ad budgets on one Super Bowl promotion and didn't get the financial return they were expecting. The Clueless are the big losers but may be getting the word.

There are others-and sometimes a new brand or advertiser will sneak into the winners circle (Monster.com in 1999)-but not often.

For more on his Super Bowl thoughts, Kevin Keller can be reached at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, (603) 646-0393 or via email.