EDO NFL TV Outcomes Report Reveals NFL Ad Effectiveness, Strength of Streaming

NFL holds five of the top ten most engaging TV programs in the last year while Amazon’s TNF debut and Spanish-language record strong engagement

EDO released today the inaugural NFL TV Outcomes Report, which highlights key ad engagement trends from the 2022-23 NFL season. EDO analyzed every Convergent TV ad that ran during linear and streaming NFL programming to reveal the season’s most impactful matchups for advertisers, the brands with the most effective investment, and granular analysis of TV ad engagement data across nine categories, such as Automotive, CPG, and Restaurants.

Heading into the 2023 season, NFL media inventory has never been more essential. Live sports held the lion’s share of Upfront investment this year, and as a pair of Hollywood strikes threaten to derail fall TV premieres, advertisers are looking to America’s favorite sport to fill critical gaps in their media plans. As marketers across industries continue to contend with economic headwinds, EDO’s outcomes data will help optimize limited budgets on TV’s most premium inventory.

“Every Convergent TV marketer knows that the NFL has long been the undisputed champion of the live sports ecosystem, keeping the advertising industry running smoothly amidst time-shifting, cord-cutting, and migration to social media,” said Kevin Krim, President & CEO, EDO. “But in this challenging TV environment, audience isn’t enough. If you don’t know what is driving your consumers to engage with your brand or make a purchase, you’re not going to be able to plan and optimize media and creative before the next week’s kickoff.”

Key highlights from the EDO’s NFL TV Outcomes Report include:

• NFL Dominates Top Linear Programming. In 2022, the NFL was responsible for half of the top ten most engaging linear TV programs in terms of advertising effectiveness — topped by a Super Bowl that was 220% more engaging than the average primetime program.
• Live Streaming and Sports are the New Frontier. In its inaugural season, Thursday Night Football games on Amazon’s Prime Video were 116% more effective at driving consumer engagement than the broadcast primetime average. 
• Spanish-Language NFL Heats Up. While ads aired during Spanish-language (SL) regular season and playoff games performed about on par with the SL primetime average, Super Bowl LVII on Telemundo was about 208% more effective at driving engagement. Nyquil, Heinz, and Flonase were among the top SL advertisers of the season. 
• Thanksgiving Day NFL Games Drive the Most Ad Impact. Three of the most impactful games for advertisers ran on Thanksgiving Day, with the primetime matchup between the New England Patriots and the Minnesota Vikings taking the top spot. 
• Rihanna is Super Bowl LVII’s Real MVP. During her first performance in seven years, Rihanna generated over 1000x as much online engagement as the median-performing in-game Super Bowl LVII ad. The term "Rihanna pregnant" generated 52x as much online engagement during Halftime as did the median-performing Big Game ad this year.

EDO also analyzed brand and creative performance in NFL programming by category. 

“Luxury auto and restaurant advertisers had particularly strong investment and ad engagement throughout last NFL season,” said Laura Grover, SVP, Head of Client Solutions, EDO. “Regular season ad engagement for categories including CPG: Food & Beverage, Non-Luxury Auto, and Retail performed about the same, on average, as their respective category primetime performance benchmarks.

Grover continued, “Despite this, ad performance for these categories saw a major boost from campaigns run during the playoffs. Ads from CPG Food & Beverage brands were 102% more effective than the category's primetime average in the playoffs, Non-Luxury Auto ads were 42% more effective than its category average, and Retail ads were 35% more effective.”

The most effective TV advertisers during the 2022 NFL regular season, per industry, are: 

• Alcohol: Crown Royal, Patron, Busch
• Automotive, Luxury: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus
• Automotive, Non-Luxury: Toyota, GMC, Ford
• CPG, Food & Beverage: Glacéau, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper
• CPG, Home & Personal: Invisalign, Chanel, Oral-B
• Financial Services: SoFi, Experian, Nerd Wallet
• Insurance: Aflac, USAA, Allstate
• Restaurants: Panera Bread, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Pizza Hut
• Retail: Dick's Sporting Goods, Old Navy, Rakuten

“In this environment, brands simply can’t afford to make a big investment at the beginning of the season and wait until after the Super Bowl to find out whether it worked,” continued Krim. “With investment-grade TV outcomes data at your side, you’ll be able to call performance-optimizing audibles all season long - which will carry you through the regular season and beyond.” 

Visit edo.com/NFL to download EDO’s NFL TV Outcomes Report and know what’s working for every brand advertising in the NFL. To find out how your brand is performing, reach out to NFL@edo.com.