How do you measure the success of a Super Bowl ad?

‘Tis the season to decide which Super Bowl ads were the best. Did they ‘work’? Were they ‘good’? Were they worth $5.3 million for the media, plus the production costs, and celebrities, and blood sweat & tears? Well, it depends on how you measure them. There are four ways, really:

1. SURVEYS

System 1 (aka Brainjuicer) and ABX do national surveys and score ads on their own special metrics.  (The ABX report isn’t out yet; that link is from last year but it’s good.)

Unruly adds facial coding to their survey via a webcam to gauge emotional reactions.  

Ipsos got 37 people at a party to wear biometric finger things to passively measure ‘galvanic skin response’.  (They don’t do an actual survey: it’s a passive metric.)

But WARNING: USA Today’s Ad Meter is junky. The sample isn’t random or weighted (anyone over 18 can sign up to vote). The sample size is secret (“thousands!”). Panelists rate ads however they want. Oh, and panelists have to rate ALL 62 ADS. Oy vey. 

2. BUZZ

Ispot.tv, Twitter, Salesforce, and talkwalker score ads on how much they’re mentioned in social & media. iSpot goes further to calculate the value of earned media that company got.

3. SALES

There are no public, real-time sales trackers. (One big academic study did find a clear sales halo for months.)

Which is probably good, since the sales impacts of brand-building things like Super Bowl ads should be measured in the long term.

It’s like exercise, people! It takes time to see the health results on the brand. And the results are in many ways: sales, of course, but profit margins, price elasticity, leverage over distribution or suppliers, attracting talent, etc.

4. GUT

Go for it, Monday morning Quarterbacks! Take your pick of the pundits out there, or write your own top ten list.