Sina Technology Zheng Jun is from Silicon Valley, USA
One world, one fanaticism. China watched the Spring Festival Gala, and the United States Super Bowl. This year's Super Bowl is expected to break last year's ratings record. The more than four-hour competition, the most impressive thing is Swift, who spills dog food, and the simple and crude and endless Pinduoduo advertisements.
The pinnacle of professional sports in the United States
In an extremely anxious and intense game, the Kansas City Chiefs, the last champion, defeated the San Francisco 49ers with a touchdown in the last three seconds of overtime, and won the annual championship of Major League Football (NFL) again.
The Missouri (yes, not Kansas) giants not only successfully defended the Lombardi Cup, but also won the Super Bowl three times in five years. In the past two decades, only retired legendary Tom Brady's New England Patriots have achieved these two astonishing feats.
Behind the Chiefs dynasty is also a new generation of quarterback superstars. Patrick Mahomes is ushering in his time. Not only did he lead the team to a third consecutive trophy yesterday, but he also won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) title for the third time, becoming the first player to win three MVPs before the age of 30 and has already been qualified into the Hall of Fame.
Competitive sports have always been brutal. While Kansas City fans were celebrating wildly, the San Francisco Bay Area was in a state of loneliness. In this white-hot battle, the 49ers were only three seconds away from victory, but they were killed at the moment they saw the light of day. The San Francisco 49ers have reached the Super Bowl three times in the past decade, but they have never won a championship, and the last time they won the championship was in 1995.
The four most popular sports leagues in the United States, in order of commercial value, are American football (NFL), baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA), and ice hockey (NHL). The NFL's total revenue in 2022 is as high as $18 billion, compared to 10.8 billion for MLB, 10 billion for the NBA, and 6.1 billion for the NHL, respectively. Soccer, the world's No. 1 sport, is not even in the top four in the United States, and MLS revenue is less than a fraction of that of the NFL.
The Super Bowl is not only the crown of professional sports events in the United States, but also the pinnacle of American TV ratings, which can only be compared with China's Spring Festival Gala, so it has the nickname of "American Spring Festival Gala". Every year on the first Sunday of February, Americans get together to eat fried chicken and drink beer to watch the Super Bowl, which is equivalent to eating dumplings and watching the Spring Festival Gala Chinese Chinese New Year's Eve. In total, Americans eat more than 1.2 billion fried chicken wings during the Super Bowl each year.
With a total population of 350 million, the United States has an average of more than 100 million viewers per year for the Super Bowl. Eight of the top 10 TV viewers in the U.S. are Super Bowls. Last year's Super Bowl 57 saw 115.1 million viewers watch the Chiefs' title-winning final, the second-highest number of viewers in U.S. television history, behind only the 150 million people who watched the 1969 U.S. moon landing on television.
Pop Lotte sprinkled dog food on the spot
Although this year's ratings data has not yet been released, various market research agencies believe that this year's ratings are expected to break last year's Super Bowl record, and may even exceed 120 million people. Because this year's Super Bowl, in addition to the exciting and fierce game elements of the Jedi reversal, there is also pop superstar Tylor Swift (Tylor Swift) who sprinkled dog food on the spot to show affection.
Yes, Swift is also the absolute protagonist of this year's Super Bowl. The 34-year-old pop queen is currently so popular that she has swept almost everywhere she goes, even the Super Bowl. She just flew to Las Vegas after a concert in Tokyo to cheer for her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, a core player of the Chiefs team. Throughout the game, Swift's every move in the stands and every expression was the focus of live TV, even more than MVP Mahomes.
There is no dispute, Swift is now red to purple, unmatched. Last year, her Eros tour earned more than $1 billion, and even her concert movie grossed more than $260 million, and just last week, she won an unprecedented fourth Grammy for Album of the Year. Last year, Time magazine named her Person of the Year, becoming the first artist to win this honor alone.
The pop queen falls in love with an NFL superstar, and this high-profile romance is clearly the scene that the NFL and sponsors are most willing to see. Since Swift went to watch Kelsey play in September last year, it has not only tripled the Chiefs' home sales, but also tripled Kelsey's jersey sales. More importantly, Swift attracted a large number of female fans to start watching the NFL, especially young girls aged 12-17 (up 53%). It is estimated that Swift's romance drove an increase of $330 million in business revenue for the NFL.
With the Chiefs reaching the Super Bowl Finals again, Swift and Kelsey's romance has become the focus of this year's Finals. Even American Airlines jumped on the bandwagon, launching a makeshift flight from Kansas City to Las Vegas with flight numbers set at 1989 and 87, Swift's birth year and eponymous album, and Kelsey's jersey number, respectively.
According to an online survey conducted by Numerator during the Super Bowl, a whopping 20 percent of TV viewers said they watched the Super Bowl because of Swift and Kelsey's romance. While 48 percent of viewers said they supported the Chiefs, only 37 percent of the 49ers said they were supporters, and 13 percent said they were not leaning.
Perhaps because of too much pressure from his diva girlfriend in the stands, Kelsey looked very nervous in the first half, and even roared at the head coach like thunder, almost toppling the 65-year-old coach. The gaffe also became the focus of television broadcasts and social media. Fortunately, in the subsequent game, he and Mahomes helped the team turn defeat into victory, and did not disappoint Swift and Kansas City fans.
Apple used the halftime show sponsorship to make a fuss
As the top-rated event in the United States, the Super Bowl is also the most commercially valuable. In 2021, the NFL signed sky-high broadcast deals with several major media groups for 11 seasons totaling up to $113 billion. It is worth mentioning that in addition to traditional sports broadcast giants such as CBS, FOX, NBC, and Disney (which includes ESPN and ABC channels), streaming giant Amazon has also joined the NFL broadcast group for the first time and obtained the exclusive broadcast rights for Thursday night games, which is the first time that a streaming platform has obtained exclusive broadcast rights.
Apple is also rumored to have joined the Super Bowl broadcast rights battle for a time, but ultimately chose a different track. In 2022, Apple Music replaced Pepsi and signed a sponsorship deal with the NFL for the Super Bowl halftime show for the next decade to promote its own streaming music service. Tor Myhren, Apple's vice president of marketing, said, "[After PepsiCo's contract with the NFL expired], we had almost no hesitation and we reached a partnership after only one talk. ”
It's no secret that the 12-minute halftime performance of the Super Bowl is the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award for pop artists, and many legendary superstars, including Michael Jackson, have performed on this stage, but Swift has not performed yet. She declined the Super Bowl invitation last year because of copyright issues with old songs, and this year coincided with the global tour. So, this year's Super Bowl halftime show featured R&B singer Arthur the Kid (Usher).
In order to get exclusive advertising space from the sponsors of the halftime show, Apple pays the NFL $50 million a year for this. But they also get a huge return on advertising, after all, the show is watched by more than 110 million people every year. According to Relo Metrics, the direct brand exposure value of the halftime show alone last year was as high as $21.5 million.
Apple Music's competition with Spotify's streaming music is no less intense than the Super Bowl. Before last year's Super Bowl, Spotify had 44.4 million subscribers in the U.S. and 32.6 million subscribers to Apple Music, and Apple clearly hopes that the Super Bowl will help it overtake Spotify in its home market.
This year's Super Bowl halftime show was full of Apple Music branded ads. Compared to its previous sponsor, PepsiCo, Apple Music obviously has more room for cooperation with the Super Bowl halftime show. Just before the Super Bowl, Apple Music announced an exclusive content deal with Kid Arthur, and all of his albums will be available on the Apple Music platform in spatial audio. Apple CEO Tim Cook also made a special appearance to shoot a commercial with Arthur Kid to warm up for the Super Bowl.
Food, beverages, and beer are always in the C position
The annual Super Bowl is also a feast for American TV commercials. TV stations pay sky-high prices to obtain broadcast rights, and naturally they also want to maximize advertising revenue. This year's CBS broadcast Super Bowl had a whopping $7 million per 30-second commercial, which was basically the same as last year's Super Bowl and a 55% increase in price compared to 2019. A total of 59 commercials appeared on the Super Bowl stage this year.
High investment in advertising, of course, expect high returns. Every year, brands that are willing to spend huge sums of money to advertise in the Super Bowl have huge business ambitions. Every year, the TV commercials of the Super Bowl can not only directly reach hundreds of millions of viewers, but also become the focus of social networks and media reports, thus bringing advertisers greater exposure in the future.
The annual Super Bowl advertising changes can also show the constant and change of American business trends and consumer needs. FMCG industries such as food, beverages, and beer with huge demand and stable sales will always be the largest advertisers of the Super Bowl, and they also occupy the most advertising space for the Super Bowl.
Oreo biscuits, Pringles, Mountain Dew drinks, Budweiser, M&M, Lindt, and donut chain Dunkin continue to occupy the C spot this year, and A-list superstars such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, and Beyonce have been invited to shoot commercials. Messi, who has recently caused a lot of controversy in China, also made his Super Bowl debut, appearing in a beer commercial.
In addition, while the vendors that run ads will vary, cars will always be the biggest advertiser for the Super Bowl. In recent years, electric cars have quietly become the absolute protagonist in the car advertisements of the Super Bowl. Whether it's Stellantis, GM and Kia last year, or BMW, Volkswagen and Kia this year, the focus will always be on electric vehicles.
This year, BMW invited veteran movie stars Christopher Walken and Arthur Kid to advertise their electric car i5, and put up a 60-second double advertising space. Volkswagen has also launched a nostalgic campaign for its upcoming electric van, the ID Buzz, after all, one of the main selling points of this car is the symbol of the era in the seventies and eighties. The main character of Kia's family-themed ad is the EV9 electric car.
It is worth noting that Toyota, which ranks first in the U.S. market, is back in the Super Bowl again, but the main focus is the pickup truck model Tacoma. Toyota's main product in the U.S. is hybrid models. In the fourth quarter of last year, sales of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. market surpassed electric vehicles for the first time, and it is expected that market share will continue to outperform electric vehicles this year. As the absolute hegemon of hybrid vehicles, Toyota has no worries about sales in the United States.
Paramount advertising near the water
Streaming is also the main commercial feature of this year's Super Bowl. This year's Super Bowl, the most TV commercials came from Paramount Group, as their CBS TV station is the broadcaster of this year's Super Bowl. As a platform close to the water, Paramount has reserved many advertising spaces for its two major streaming outlets, Paramount+ and Ploto TV, to broadcast advertisements continuously.
In the highly competitive streaming industry, Paramount started relatively late, and although the scale is significantly inferior to Netflix and Disney, it has also maintained a steady growth momentum by virtue of its copyright advantage. Paramount operates both Paramount+ and Ploto TV, with the former on a paid subscription basis and the latter on a free-to-advertise basis.
In the third quarter of last year, Paramount's streaming business lost $238 million, but it narrowed from $343 million in the same period last year. Importantly, watch time on both major streaming platforms increased by 46% during the quarter, with Paramount+ reaching 63 million subscribers, subscription revenue reaching $1.3 billion, and ad revenue up 18%.
Disney is also a big advertiser for the Super Bowl. Last year, in celebration of its centennial, Disney spent $20 million in commercials at the Super Bowl to buy 90-second super ad space. But to Disney's disappointment, last year's annual blockbusters were dismal at the box office and could not even recoup their costs. This year's Super Bowl, Disney reserved the advertising space for its streaming platform Disney+, and launched a 30-second minimalist ad with only subtitles.
The 2022 Super Bowl almost became an advertising feast for cryptocurrency, but as the bubble burst in the industry and many platforms were mired in fraud scandals, last year's Super Bowl simply rejected all crypto companies.
Compared to previous years, there are not many high-tech corporate advertisements at this year's Super Bowl, and they have returned to the daily needs of users. Google launched ads for its Pixel mobile phone, due to the lack of mobile phone brands in the American market, Pixel is currently ranked fourth in the US market, behind Apple, Samsung, and Moto, of course, the market share gap is huge.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is promoting its own AI tool, CoPilot. At present, Microsoft has surpassed Apple and entered the $3 trillion club, becoming the world's largest listed company by market capitalization. The generative AI boom that began last year is the capital for Microsoft's stock price to soar, on the one hand, Microsoft has firmly bound OpenAI with investment and cloud platform, and on the other hand, it has accelerated the AI upgrade of its own products, allowing users to see the new growth space in the AI era.
In addition, Internet companies that have appeared in the Super Bowl this year include e-commerce platform Etsy, hotel booking platform Booking.com, food delivery platforms Uber Eats and Doordash, social platform Snapchat, online real estate platform Homes.com.
Pinduoduo is simple, rude, and indiscriminate
It has to be mentioned that Temu, owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, has once again become the most impressive advertisement for the Super Bowl with its deep pockets and simple crudeness. At last year's Super Bowl, Temu, which has only been in existence for four months, shocked American TV viewers by buying two consecutive 30-second commercial spaces with the slogan "Shop like a billionaire."
Although Temu's ad was uncreative, it made Americans remember this high-quality and affordable e-commerce platform. Temu ships directly from China to U.S. consumers at a very low price of 99 cents, and although the quality varies, most of the time it doesn't even require a return for a direct refund.
This year's Super Bowl ad for Temu is still "shop like a billionaire," and the simple and straightforward computer animation doesn't require any comprehension, and was named the worst Super Bowl ad by the New York Times. But Temu's main product is a simple and rude, and an ad has been placed six times!
Countless U.S. viewers lamented on Platform X (formerly Twitter) how many times they would watch the TEMU ad for the Super Bowl?!!
According to market research firm Earnest Analytics, Temu had gained a 17% market share in the low-end discount market in the United States in November last year, ranking third in the market after Dollar General and Dollar Tree, two major bargainers. Citi analysts estimate that Temu sales have reached $4.2 billion in the third quarter of last year.
According to data from market research firm Sensor Tower, in just over a year, Temu has more than 50 million monthly active users in the United States in January this year, an increase of 300% year-on-year. And in the fourth quarter of last year, the average time spent by Temu users per week reached 23 minutes, surpassing Amazon, which only had 18 minutes, just like TikTok, becoming the "king of user stickiness".
With $4 imitation Stanley mugs, $8 sneakers, and $18 imitation Airpods, Temu's success in the United States proves that Pinduoduo's simple, rough and cheap play can not only sweep the Chinese market, but also make American consumers unstoppable.
Perhaps, Pinduoduo does not need to be tall, simple and rough and cheap is invincible.