The same world, the same fanaticism. China watches the Spring Festival Gala and the United States watches the Super Bowl. This year's Super Bowl is expected to break last year's viewing record. The game lasted for more than four hours, and the most impressive thing was Swift’s aggressive display of dog food, as well as the simple, crude and endless Pinduoduo advertisements.
The pinnacle event of American professional sports
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In an extremely intense game, the last championship, the Kansas City Chiefs, relied on a touchdown in the last three seconds of overtime to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in a huge comeback and once again won the Major League Football Championship ( NFL) annual championship.
This overlord from Missouri (yes, not from Kansas) not only successfully defended the Lombardi Cup, but also set a brilliant record of winning three Super Bowls in five years. In the past two decades, only the New England Patriots of retired legendary superstar Tom Brady have achieved these two amazing achievements.
Behind the Chiefs dynasty is also a new generation of quarterback superstars. Patrick Mahomes is creating his own era. Yesterday, he not only led the team to win the cup for the third consecutive time, but also won the title of Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the third time. He became the first player to win three MVPs before the age of 30, and has already locked up the qualifications for the Hall of Fame.
Competitive sports have always been cruel. While Kansas City fans celebrated wildly, the San Francisco Bay Area fell into despair. In this fierce battle, the 49ers were only three seconds away from victory, but they suffered a fatal blow at the moment they saw the light of day. In the past ten years, the San Francisco 49ers have reached the Super Bowl three times, but in the end they failed to win the championship. Their last championship was in the distant 1995.
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The four most popular sports leagues in the United States, ranked in order of commercial value, are American football (NFL), baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA) and ice hockey (NHL). The NFL's total revenue in 2022 will be as high as 18 billion US dollars, while MLB, NBA and NHL will be 10.8 billion, 10 billion and 6.1 billion respectively. Football, the world's number one sport, is not even ranked among the top four in the United States, and MLS's revenue is less than a fraction of the NFL's.
The Super Bowl is not only the crown of American professional sports events, but also the peak of American television ratings. Only China's Spring Festival Gala can compare with it, so it is nicknamed “American Spring Festival Gala”. On the first Sunday of February every year, Americans gather together to eat fried chicken, drink beer and watch the Super Bowl, just like Chinese people eat dumplings and watch the Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve. Americans eat more than 1.2 billion fried chicken wings each year during the Super Bowl.
In the United States, which has a total population of 350 million, the average annual Super Bowl audience exceeds 100 million. Eight of the top ten most watched games in the United States are Super Bowls. Last year's 57th Super Bowl, a total of 115.1 million viewers watched the Chiefs' championship game, setting the second-highest audience in American television history, second only to the 150 million people who watched the 1969 U.S. moon landing live on television.
The pop diva spread dog food on the spot
Although this year's ratings data have not yet been released, various market research agencies believe that this year's ratings are expected to break last year's Super Bowl record, and may even exceed 120 million viewers. Because this year's Super Bowl, in addition to the exciting and fierce game elements, also has the pop star Taylor Swift (Tylor Swift) spreading dog food on the spot to show affection.
Yes, Swift is also the absolute protagonist of this year's Super Bowl. The 34-year-old Queen of Pop is currently so popular that she is taking over almost everywhere she goes, including the Super Bowl. Having just finished her Tokyo concert, she flew to Las Vegas to cheer on her boyfriend and Chiefs core player Travis Kelce. Throughout the game, Swift's every move and every expression in the stands was the focus of live television, even appearing more times than MVP Mahomes.
There is no dispute, Swift is so popular right now that no one can match her. Last year, her Eros tour revenue exceeded US$1 billion, and even the box office of her concert movie exceeded US$260 million. Just last week, she also won an unprecedented fourth Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Last year, Time magazine named her Person of the Year, becoming the first artist to win this honor alone.
The Queen of Pop falls in love with an NFL superstar. This high-profile romance is obviously what the NFL and sponsors most want to see. Since Swift went to watch Kelce play in September last year, not only has the Chiefs' home sales tripled, but Kelce's jersey sales have tripled. More importantly, Swift attracted a large number of female fans to start watching the NFL, especially young girls aged 12-17 (a 53% increase). It is estimated that Swift's relationship boosted the NFL's commercial revenue by $330 million.
As the Chiefs reach the Super Bowl again, Swift and Kelce's romance has become the focus of this year's finals. Even American Airlines jumped on the bandwagon. They opened a temporary support flight from Kansas City to Las Vegas. The flight numbers were set to 1989 and 87, respectively the birth year of Swift and the album of the same name, and Kelsey's. Jersey number.
An online survey conducted by Numerator during the Super Bowl showed that up to 20% of TV viewers said they watched the Super Bowl because of Swift and Kelsey's romance. While 48% of viewers said they support the Chiefs, only 37% of 49ers supporters said they had no preference.
Perhaps because the diva girlfriend brought too much pressure in the stands, Kelsey seemed very nervous in the first half and even roared at the head coach, almost pushing the 65-year-old coach. The gaffe also became the focus of television broadcasts and social media. Fortunately, in the subsequent game, he and Mahomes helped the team turn defeat into a victory, and did not disappoint Swift and the Kansas City fans. In the end, her boyfriend won the cup, and Berry gave a sweet kiss on the spot, which also made this most high-profile “dog” Grain” has a happy ending.
Apple uses halftime show sponsorship to make a fuss
As the top-rated event in the United States, the Super Bowl also has the highest commercial value. In 2021, the NFL signed a sky-high broadcast agreement with several major media groups totaling US$113 billion for 11 seasons. It is worth mentioning that in addition to traditional sports broadcast giants such as CBS, FOX, NBC, and Disney (including ESPN and ABC channels), the streaming media giant Amazon also joined the NFL broadcast group for the first time and obtained the exclusive broadcast rights for Thursday night games. This is the first time that a streaming media platform has obtained exclusive broadcast rights.
It was rumored that Apple also joined the fight for Super Bowl broadcast rights, but ultimately chose another track. In 2022, Apple Music replaced Pepsi-Cola and signed a Super Bowl halftime show sponsorship contract with the NFL for the next ten years to promote its own streaming music service. Tor Myhren, Apple's vice president of marketing, said, “(After the expiration of the contract between Pepsi and the NFL), we had almost no hesitation and reached a cooperation after only one conversation.”
As we all know, the 12-minute halftime performance of the Super Bowl is equivalent to a lifetime achievement award for pop music artists. Many legendary stars, including Michael Jackson, have performed on this stage, but Swift has not performed yet. Because of the copyright issue of old songs, she declined the Super Bowl invitation last year, and this year she happened to be in the middle of a global tour. So this year's Super Bowl halftime show features R&B singer Usher.
In order to obtain exclusive advertising space for halftime show sponsors, Apple pays the NFL $50 million in annual sponsorship fees. But they also get a huge advertising return, after all, it is a program watched by more than 110 million people every year. According to statistics from market research firm Relo Metrics, the direct brand exposure value of last year's halftime show alone was as high as $21.5 million.
The streaming music competition between Apple Music and Spotify is as fierce as the Super Bowl. Before last year's Super Bowl, Spotify had 44.4 million subscribers in the United States, while Apple Music had 32.6 million. Apple obviously hopes that the Super Bowl will help it surpass Spotify in the local market.
This year’s Super Bowl halftime show was filled with Apple Music brand ads. Compared with its previous sponsor Pepsi, Apple Music obviously has more room for cooperation with the Super Bowl halftime show. Just before the Super Bowl, Apple Music announced an exclusive content agreement with Usher, and all of his albums will be launched on the Apple Music platform in the form of spatial audio. Apple CEO Cook also made a special appearance, shooting an advertisement with Usher to warm up for the Super Bowl.
Food, beverages and beer are always in the C position
The annual Super Bowl is also a feast of American television advertising. TV stations pay sky-high prices to obtain broadcast rights, and naturally they also want to maximize advertising revenue. This year's Super Bowl broadcast by CBS cost up to $7 million per 30-second commercial, which is basically the same as last year's Super Bowl. Compared with 2019, the price has increased by 55%. A total of 59 commercials appeared on the Super Bowl stage this year.
If you invest heavily in advertising, you certainly expect high returns. Brands that are willing to spend huge sums of money to advertise in the Super Bowl every year have huge business ambitions. Every year, TV commercials during the Super Bowl can not only directly reach hundreds of millions of viewers, but also become the focus of social networks and media reports, thereby bringing greater subsequent exposure to advertisers.
The changes in Super Bowl advertisements every year can also be seen from the changes in American business trends and consumer demands. Food, beverage, beer and other fast-moving consumer goods industries with huge demand and stable sales will always be the largest advertising sponsors of the Super Bowl, and also occupy the most advertising space in the Super Bowl.
Oreo cookies, Pringles, Mountain Dew drinks, Budweiser beer, M&M chocolate beans, Lindt chocolate, and donut chain Dunkin continue to occupy the C position this year, and also invited Ben Affleck (Ben Affleck) , Jennifer Aniston, Beyonce and other A-list stars shoot advertisements. Messi, who has caused huge controversy in China recently, also appeared in the Super Bowl for the first time, appearing in a beer commercial.
In addition, although the manufacturers of advertisements will change, cars will always be the largest advertising sponsor of the Super Bowl. In recent years, electric vehicles have quietly become the absolute protagonist in Super Bowl car ads. Whether it was Stellantis, General Motors and Kia last year, or BMW, Volkswagen and Kia this year, the center of advertising will always be electric vehicles.
This year, BMW invited veteran movie stars Christopher Walken and Usher to advertise its electric car i5, and ran a 60-second double advertisement. Volkswagen has also launched a nostalgic-themed advertisement for its upcoming electric van ID Buzz. After all, one of the car's selling points is that it is a symbol of the era of the 1970s and 1980s. The protagonist of Kia’s family-themed advertisement is the electric car EV9.
It is worth noting that Toyota, which ranks first in the U.S. market, returns to the Super Bowl again, but its main focus is the pickup truck Tacoma. Toyota's main focus in the United States is hybrid models. In the fourth quarter of last year, hybrid vehicle sales in the U.S. market exceeded electric vehicles for the first time, and it is expected that the market share will continue to overwhelm electric vehicles this year. As the absolute overlord of hybrid vehicles, Toyota has no worries about sales in the United States.
Paramount Advertising Close to the Waterfront
Streamers are also starring in ads at this year’s Super Bowl. In this year's Super Bowl, the most TV ads came from Paramount Group, because their CBS TV station is the broadcaster of this year's Super Bowl. As a platform close to the water, Paramount has reserved many advertising spaces for its two major streaming media Paramount + and Ploto TV, which continuously broadcast advertisements.
In the highly competitive streaming media industry, Paramount started relatively late. Although its scale is obviously smaller than Netflix and Disney, it has maintained a stable growth momentum with its copyright advantages. Paramount operates both Paramount + and Ploto TV, the former is a paid subscription system and the latter is a free advertising system.
In the third quarter of last year, although Paramount's streaming business lost $238 million, it narrowed from $343 million in the same period last year. Importantly, viewing time on the two major streaming media platforms increased by 46% in the quarter, Paramount + subscribers reached 63 million, subscription revenue reached $1.3 billion, and advertising revenue increased by 18%.
Disney is also a big Super Bowl advertiser. To celebrate its centennial last year, Disney invested $20 million in advertising at the Super Bowl, buying a 90-second super spot. But to Disney's dismay, several of last year's annual blockbusters tanked at the box office and were unable to even recover their money. This year’s Super Bowl, Disney reserved advertising space for its own streaming platform Disney+, launching a 30-second minimalist ad with only subtitles.
The 2022 Super Bowl has almost become an advertising feast for cryptocurrency. However, as the bubble in this industry burst, many platforms fell into fraud scandals. Last year, the Super Bowl simply rejected all cryptocurrency companies.
Compared with previous years, there were not many high-tech company advertisements in this year’s Super Bowl, and they returned to the daily needs of users. Google has launched ads for its Pixel mobile phone. Due to the lack of mobile phone brands in the US market, Pixel is currently ranked fourth in the US market, behind Apple, Samsung and Motorcycle. Of course, the market share gap is huge.
Microsoft is promoting its own AI tool CoPilot. At present, Microsoft has surpassed Apple and entered the three trillion dollar club, becoming the world's largest listed company by market value. The generative AI craze that started last year has been the capital for Microsoft's soaring stock price. On the one hand, Microsoft has firmly tied OpenAI with investment and cloud platforms, and on the other hand, it has accelerated the AI upgrade of its own products across the board, allowing users to see new growth space in the AI era. .
In addition, Internet companies participating in the Super Bowl this year include e-commerce platform Etsy and hotel reservation platform Booking.comfood delivery platforms Uber Eats and Doordash, social platform Snapchat, online real estate platform Homes.com.
Pinduoduo simply, crudely and indiscriminately bombards
It must be mentioned that Temu, owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, once again became the most impressive Super Bowl ad with its deep pockets and simplicity. At last year's Super Bowl, Temu, which was founded just four months ago, bought two 30-second advertisements in a row, featuring the slogan “Shop Like a Billionaire”, which shocked American TV audiences.
Although Temu's advertisements are uncreative, they make Americans remember this high-quality and affordable e-commerce platform. Temu ships directly from China to American consumers at extremely low prices of as low as 99 cents. Although the quality varies, most of the time there is no need to return the product for a direct refund.
This year Temu's Super Bowl ad is still “Shop Like a Billionaire”, a simple and direct computer animation that does not require any understanding, and was named the worst ad in the Super Bowl by the New York Times. But Temu's main focus is simple and crude, and one advertisement was shown six times!
Countless American viewers lamented on the X platform (formerly Twitter), how many times do they have to watch TEMU ads in the Super Bowl? ! !
According to data from market research company Earnest Analytics, Temu had captured 17% of the U.S. low-end discount market in November last year, ranking third in the market after Dollar General and Dollar Tree. Citi analysts estimate that Temu sales reached $4.2 billion in the third quarter of last year.
Data from market research company Sensor Tower shows that in just over a year, Temu's monthly active users in the United States exceeded 50 million in January this year, a year-on-year increase of 300%. Moreover, in the fourth quarter of last year, the average stay time of Temu users per week reached 23 minutes, surpassing Amazon, which only had 18 minutes. Just like TikTok, it became the “king of user stickiness.”
A $4 imitation Stanley thermos cup, an $8 sneaker, and an $18 imitation AirPods. Temu’s success in the United States proves that Pinduoduo’s simple, crude and cheap approach can not only sweep the Chinese market, but also make American consumers unstoppable. .
Perhaps, Pinduoduo does not need to be lofty, simple, crude and cheap means it is invincible.