Super Bowl Ads Are Less Effective Than Others

Before-and-after interviews with more than 1,000 customers in 2012 and 2013 indicate that 80% of Super Bowl ads fail to increase purchases or purchase intent, according to research firm Communicus. That’s about 20 percentage points worse than the average of ads the firm tests. One limiting factor for Super Bowl commercials is that they tend not to run regularly after the game; another is that brand association sometimes gets lost in the highly entertaining story lines, the firm says.