Broadcast & Social Analysis

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Super Bowl LV was the culmination of an NFL season like no other. A pandemic season featuring no, or few, fans forced the league, teams, and their partners to changed strategic priorities and accelerated the migration to digital, putting greater scrutiny on advertising spends. The shift in how brands and properties measured the performance of their sponsorships and media assets made the ability to view broadcast and social media as an omnichannel analysis invaluable.

This report analyzes performance and trends during the big game. Our ability to pinpoint minute-to-minute data with both broadcast viewership and social media gives brands higher levels of transparency into their executions. MVP is able to do this because our broadcast data is powered by a viewership panel of 3,000,000 homes, more than 66x our closest competitor. This data also represents all 240 unique DMAs, providing the best lens for viewership behavior anywhere.

The need to accurately measure broadcast and social is as important as ever. The insights learned from Super Bowl LV through minute-to-minute evaluation are now the benchmark for any sponsorship.

SUPER BOWL LV AVG VIEWERSHIP

100,776,469

YoY -10.2%

Super Bowl LV's 100,776,469 average viewership was a 10.2% decrease from 2020's 111,059,359 viewers.

Brand Commercials Spotlight

In evaluating Super Bowl brand performance, it is important to understand viewership of the commercial as a key metric. Minute-to-minute broadcast analysis can pinpoint this data for specific commercials. The extension of that commercial on social amplifies a brand's performance. Here are 5 brands that utilized an omnichannel approach to their Super Bowl activations.

Pepsi Halftime Comparison

In 2020, the Super Bowl halftime show's average viewership was 117,325,284, one of the highest peaks of the whole game. There was a 14% decline in 2021 to 100,764,963 average viewers. In the 5 minutes after the show ended, audiences dropped 5.2% in 2020 and 1.9% in 2021.

First Scores

The first points of the game were both field goals in 2020 and 2021 and both were by the losing team. The difference was a 3.9% viewership drop from 2020 to 2021.

7:10 PM ET

In 2020 and 2021 there was a touchdown scored at 7:10 PM. 111,813,106 viewers watched this moment in 2020, while only 106,122,211 in 2021.

Late Game Interceptions

In 2020 and 2021, both losing QBs threw late game interceptions, within 2 minutes of each other. Garoppolo at 10:07 PM ET in 2020 and Maholmes at 10:09 PM ET this year. Due to the scores of the game, there was a decrease in viewership of 13% when Maholmnes was picked off in 2021.

Viewership By DMA

2021 Super Bowl

2020 Super Bowl

Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City

When comparing viewership by participating teams DMA’s, Tampa Bay averaged 9.5% viewership growth over the course of the game compared to Kansas City.

Tampa Bay | Avg Viewers 1,653,949

Kansas City| Avg Viewers 1,070,496

Kansas City 2020 vs. 2021

When compared to last season’s Super Bowl, the Kansas City DMA saw a dramatic decrease in viewership leading into halftime. Although the DMA was seen to tune back in after half, by the 4th quarter viewership for the DMA had dropped again and even more so by the time the game ended.

2021 | Avg Viewers: 1,070,496

2020 | Avg Viewers: 1,225,737

Tampa Bay vs. New England

Lastly, while Tom Brady played in his first Super Bowl for the Bucanneers, New England averaged a higher viewership percentage than Tampa Bay, with viewership peaking when Tom Brady helped extend the lead to 21-6 at the end of the 2nd quarter.

Tampa Bay | Avg Viewers 1,653,949

New England | Avg Viewers 1,985,436

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