Top Five Reasons Super Bowl has lost market share:
1. The internet – some people tuned into the game just to watch the ads. Now they can just go online to watch them or to catch the game later. Some ads are even ‘leaked’ prior to the game.
2. Higher Education – more people are obtaining higher education than ever before. College sports are slowly over taking the market share of professional sports, and some athletic departments are more profitable than professional franchises. Did you notice the small attempt during the game to showcase where each player had gone to school when the lineups were introduced?
3. Ads – not only can the ads be viewed online after (and sometimes before) the game, the ads just aren’t what they used to be. They don’t have to be controversial like every GoDaddy.com ad displayed, but they should be entertaining and have the ability to get the message to the viewers at the same time. Ads were something that provided viewers who didn’t care about the game to still watch…now they don’t. Agencies are to blame for this point.
4. Half Time Show – really? Who was going to tune in to watch The Who? And, if you did, I’m sorry…it was not very good.
5. Sponsors – ever notice that every facet of the game / broadcast was sponsored by something? From tires to golf, CBS attempted to monetize the entire broadcast. Not only was it annoying to see spots for CBS shows over and over again, it was a little over the top at how many times a sponsor was included in the broadcast. Does sponsorship really work? Maybe it does – Google finally did it…
In short, the staples of what made this a don’t miss event have since gone many years ago. Ads are no longer entertaining, the half-time show features artists from previous generations, and the internet has now made this an on-demand event.
