Recap of Super Bowl Ad Trends

There were 32 different firms that advertised during the Super Bowl.

The advertisers were decidedly consumer oriented advertisers. You had regulars such as Budweiser and Coke, and newbies. Eight different movies were featured in advertisements.

Missing this year from the Super Bowl was FedEx and consulting firms, both which can be considered as the types of firms that cater to the capital goods sector.

Car ads were cut back with no sign of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler. However, Hyundai, Toyota and Audi featured ads, all of which are not caught up in the financial problems of the Big Three .

The insider firm GE, parent of NBC, featured a number of ads explaining how GE helps the world. Could GE have,actually, been helping NBC, as the final buyer of ads that helped sellout NBC's advertising within only a couple of days of the Super Bowl, itself?

Both Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com advertised. With a recession being about an economy shifting, and personnel switching industries, employment type ads are not surprising.

The most interesting ads from an economists position were the ads by Cash4Gold.com and the Etrade ads.

Cash4Gold.com pays cash for gold. An odd advertiser for the Super Bowl, unless you realize that the amount of gold being liquidated by individuals must be significant (otherwise, you don't run ads during the Super Bowl). Once this relatively finite supply of gold is liquidated, can a huge upside price breakout for gold be far behind?

Etrade's ad was most interesting because all indications are that small investor's are staying away from the market. Does Etrade know something the rest of us don't? Or is it wishful thinking on their part that things are about to change.

In summary, there was little in the way of capital goods type advertisers stepping up to the plate. No computer "business solutions" ads, no FedEx, no consultants, no copier companies. They are all still hiding under a rock. The eight movie advertisers are an indication of how the action is in the consumer sector.

Super Bowl advertising, thus, may be a coincident indicator, rather than a leading indicator.

I plan to track future Super Bowl advertising, and in a more formal fashion. Including a more formal breakdown of this years results. Also I am going to look back to see if I can find data on previous Super Bowl advertising. As always, I will report back any findings here at EPJ.