Distracted Yet Engaged
In our second annual Super Bowl survey we reveal that America’s appetite for Super Bowl marketing is ravenous, especially that of young adult (18-34) game watchers.
Young adults told us they are looking forward to watching the ads more than spending time with their friends and family, the half-time show and the national anthem, in that order. In fact, of the 64% of young adults that would opt to watch the game with commercials versus commercial-free, 25% of that group would even pay a $.99 subscription fee to watch the ads during the game.
“Call it the ‘Mad Men’ effect, but young Americans’ intrigue with Super Bowl advertising seems to be at a steady increase, which is a great sign for marketers who’ve made the investment,” said Lucy Farey-Jones, partner and head of strategy, VB&P. “Take that passion – combined with their habit of multi-tasking on multiple technology platforms – and you get a consumer who is ready and willing to engage.”
According to VB&P’s survey, young adults’ technology habits are rapidly evolving. In fact, 44% plan to be texting during the game, double that of the average survey population, and 40% plan to be on Facebook (vs. the survey’s 22% average). Additionally, three times as many young adults report they will be tweeting during the game (vs. the survey average).
Despite this distraction across multiple technology platforms, young adults’ engagement in the advertising will be high before, during and after the Super Bowl. Prior to the game, 60% will pay attention to who is advertising (vs. 50% of the general population). Not only do 86% of young adults say they will talk about the ads during the game and afterwards, but they will also extend that chatter online. 34% of them report they’ll post something about the advertising to their social networking sites, while only 29% will post about an important play. 30% plan to post something about the Super Bowl on Facebook (vs. 15% survey average) and 59% plan to share their favorite ad on the popular social networking site (vs. 39% survey average).
Younger consumers not only look forward to watching the advertising, but also if given the opportunity, 48% would like to participate in a consumer-generated ad- making contest. 22% have also voted for their favorite consumer-generated ad to run during the Super Bowl game (vs. 11% survey average).
Watch Lucy discuss the study on ABC News and read about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo, AdRants, MediaPost, Boston Globe, AOL Daily Finance, SHOOT Online, The SF Egotist, Boston.com and The New York Times.
For more information on the study or to schedule an interview with Lucy, please contact Meredith Vellines at meredith.vellines@venablesbell.com.