Going beyond Super Bowl engagement metrics to find what consumers really think
Advertisers need to consider consumer sentiment for a more complete assessment of ad performance.
Robin Kurzer on February 8, 2018 at 11:49 am | Reading time: 4 minutes



Digimind’s Super Bowl 2018 Sentiment Analysis
There’s a time and a place
In September of last year, Sprout Social surveyed more than 1,000 customers to find out what kind of appetite they had for political content and where they would like to consume it. A whopping 66 percent believed it was important for brands to take a stand. The survey also found that just under half (47 percent) of the consumers would be receptive to a brand’s social/political issues on TV or radio, versus 58 percent on social media. And if they do want that kind of content, they want it to be credible and strategic. Andrew Caravella, vice president of strategy and brand engagement for Sprout Social, said that it’s important that brands are strategic when getting political. “During this year’s Super Bowl, brands like Budweiser, WeatherTech and T-Mobile decided to use the spotlight to voice their positions on political and social issues,” Caravella said. “In our current climate, it may seem like a smart move — but some ads, such as the one from Dodge Ram using a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech as a backdrop, really missed the mark with viewers.” We’re increasingly seeing brands forge deeper relationships with their socially conscious communities by taking a stand on important and topical issues. Yet on a night like this, where mass market appeal dominates the landscape, credibility was not a constant from brand to brand. “Many of these marketing teams may be asking themselves in the morning if a Super Bowl ad was the best place to give it a go,” Caravella said.Contributing authors are invited to create content for MarTech and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. MarTech is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
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