Do Super Bowl ads get you to spend money?

By Dave Mosher

updated 7:22 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2008

The Super Bowl is no longer just an annual Sunday affair of guttural cheers and gorging of snack food. It's a "veritable selling season," as one researcher called it, for mega advertisements.

Thirty-five advertisers this year will shell out about $3 million per 30-second television ad — that's $100,000 per second, nearly double the price a decade ago.

So do they pay off?

For companies that create the right ad magic, the answer is a resounding "yes." Their creativity can even boost their stock prices. The right combination, research shows, is a blend of humor and either celebrity appeal or animal antics.

Success also depends on the buzz beyond the Bowl.

More than just ads
Chuck Tomkovick, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who has researched Super Bowl advertising for more than 10 years, said the buzz surrounding the ads is sufficient to make them wise investments.

"These companies are getting more for their money than just 30 seconds," Tomkovick told LiveScience. "There's an [Internet] following on these ads and they're being publicized way in advance. They get sort of a red carpet treatment for a few weeks."

Super Bowl ads have grown so popular, in fact, that Tomkovick said they're being sold as downloads for handheld devices.

"Also, advertisers sometimes hold video submission or voting contests for their commercials," he said, noting that viewers inevitably log onto company Web sites to participate and leave with a lasting impression.

But does that push viewers to drive away in a featured car, snack on a specific brand of chips, or reach for the best-advertised beer?

"It varies greatly depending on what's being sold," Tomkovick said, but noted that Web-based companies seem to have recently enjoyed a large amount of success.

"GoDaddy dot com, if you believe their press releases, said they have more than doubled their ownership of the [Web hosting] market shares simply by investing in Super Bowl advertising, driving people to their Web site," he said. "I have no reason ... to believe that it's untrue."

Movies also feel the effects: an average of 36 percent more revenue, in fact, if their trailers show during the game. That conclusion stems from a 2004 study Tomkovick co-authored in the Journal of Advertising Research.

"In addition to movies, over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs, tech and financial, toys, gadgets and clothing have all done reasonably well," said Tomkovick, who recently completed an unpublished study of the Super Bowl advertising's connection with the stock market.

The new study's findings suggest that companies advertising in the Super Bowl inflate their stock value by 1.3 percent after the game, compared to the shares' values two weeks prior. Not all companies enjoy equal success, however.

"Beverage stocks stay relatively flat, no pun intended, and cars don't do well either," Tomkovick said. "Maybe it's just the time of year that people aren't excited to shop for cars."

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