Happy New Year from EDO! As we kick off 2020, EDO took a look back at 2019 TV programming to see which live programs were most effective at generating viewer engagement and online search for their advertisers.
Search Engagement is EDO’s proprietary measure of the increase in online search activity for a brand or product in the minutes immediately following a TV ad airing. The Search Engagement Rate (SER) metric controls for both audience size and ad duration, allowing for an apples-to-apples comparison of the performance of various programs as platforms for advertising.
2019 Top 10 Live Sports Programs Ranked by Search Engagement
In addition to being the most highly rated event of the year, the Super Bowl (CBS) also proved to be the most engaging live sports program for its advertisers, driving incredibly strong viewer Search Engagement. The NBA Finals (ABC) and College Football National Championship Game (ESPN) also rounded out the top three live sports programs for the second year (see last year’s rankings here).
Football, at both the NFL and college level, is clearly an engaging platform for advertisers as live football programming took half of the top 10 spots. Basketball also performed well, with the NBA and NCAA Men’s Tournament taking three spots in the rankings.
2019 Top 5 Live Event Programs Ranked by Search Engagement
And the award goes to The Grammys! The music award show outperformed the rest of the list, generating strong Search Engagement for its advertisers.
Awards shows performed well across networks in 2019, driving viewer Search Engagement during live events celebrating music, movies, and TV.