College sports fans are still feeling the adrenaline from the 2021-2022 College Football Bowl Game season. The series of 44 bowl games — which included 18 more games than last year — concluded Monday night with the Georgia Bulldogs winning their first college football national championship since 1980.
NCAA sports perform exceptionally well for advertising brands when it comes to online consumer search. EDO’s 2021 TV Advertising Insights report details how four of the top 10 live sports programs last year were NCAA basketball or football games. EDO analysis found that the 2021 NCAAF Championship Game outperformed the average live sports program by 82%.
With another Bowl season in the books, here’s a few lessons we learned.
Bowl Games are reliable events for advertisers
College Football Bowl Games consistently outperform the average primetime broadcast program as measured by EDO’s proprietary metric, Search Engagement.
This means TV viewers are more likely to engage online with a brand in the minutes immediately following a brand’s TV ad airing during a College Football Bowl Game, in comparison to a brand’s TV ad airing during the average primetime broadcast program.
Select categories performed better as the Bowl season has progressed:
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Financial Services category airings during regular Bowl Games outperformed airings during the average primetime broadcast program by 34% in terms of Search Engagement this season, and by 83% YoY.
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Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category airings during the New Year’s Six Bowl Games the past two years have outperformed QSR airings during the average primetime broadcast program by over 40%, in terms of Search Engagement. Year over year, QSR airings during the New Year’s Six Bowl Games outperformed by 10%.
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The National Semifinal Bowl Games generated high Search Engagement for the Insurance category. A TV viewer was 291% more likely to search online for an Insurance advertiser immediately following the advertiser’s TV ad airing during a Semifinal Game, in comparison to the average primetime broadcast program.
Want more College Football insights? We’ve got you covered.
Watch our favorite ads from College Football’s Final Four programming.
Sponsorships work
Sponsorships are expensive, costing a company millions of dollars per year and hundreds of millions over time. But they are well worth the investment.
Such is the case for Chick-fil-A. As a long-time sponsor of the Peach Bowl, Chick-fil-A has helped raise money for local charity and scholarships, made heavy investments in Atlanta college football, and as a result, built its customer base.
Additionally, Chick-fil-A’s national TV ad airings during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl have generated strong Search Engagement among TV watchers. A viewer who saw a Chick-fil-A ad airing during the Peach Bowl this past season was over 100% more likely to search online for Chick-fil-A than the average Chick-fil-A airing during primetime broadcast.
We see this same effect for other sponsorships, including Allstate and Capital One:
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Allstate ad airings during the Allstate Sugar Bowl generated a Search Engagement 388% higher than Primetime Broadcast. A TV viewer who saw an Allstate ad airing during the Sugar Bowl this past season was over 388% more likely to search online for the company in comparison to the average Primetime Broadcast TV ad airing.
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Similarly, a TV viewer who saw a Capital One ad airing during the Orange Bowl this past season was twice as likely to search online for Capital One than the average Capital One TV airing during primetime broadcast.
Bowl Games are a good bang for your buck
Taking into account the audience size of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Games, on average, it would cost Chick-fil-A about six ads during the average primetime broadcast program to generate the same amount of online engagement as one ad during the Peach Bowl. This helps Chick-fil-A generate just as much customer buzz and eventual sales in one instance, rather than paying for more airing time on other programs.
Various types of advertisers including Crypto.com have been using the NCAAF Bowl Games as a method to reach their audience.
For example, the Allstate Sugar Bowl was beneficial for QSR advertisers. A TV viewer was more than 140% more likely to engage online with the QSR advertiser in the minutes following the advertiser’s airing during the Allstate Sugar Bowl, in comparison to the average primetime broadcast TV ad airing.
And, given the high reach of this game, on average, it would cost a QSR advertiser approximately 18 ads on primetime broadcast to generate the same online engagement as one ad aired during the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
While ad performance in college football programming certainly peaks around this time of year, we anticipate it will continue to engage audiences for years to come.
Interested in seeing more? Find what works for your brand and what your competitors are up to. Contact us today to learn how EDO can help you generate more consumer engagement.