• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 31, 2014

The Super Bowl isn’t just for marketers looking to grab more return on their TV investment. Increasingly, many business-to-business marketing and media agencies looking to make sense of it all are getting involved. They’re looking for publicity in the eventual hope of gaining partnerships with marketers looking for greater insight.

Deep Super Bowl-related detail can come in many forms: second-by-second program and commercial analysis; biometric research; real-time customer engagement data; overall social media buzz; YouTube activity of Super Bowl commercials before the actual game; specific media return-on investment-data; and other areas of exploration.

Some of it can be confusing.  Experts are offering research about why the Super Bowl is still a decent buy. They’re looking at traditional media measures. They’re even touting research showing how the big game is incredibly ineffective for TV marketers.

Some analysis isn’t just about which marketers are in the Super Bowl, but also about which marketers are not. One study looks at rerun programming on other networks, as well as at those tongue-in-cheek Super Bowl-like shows: The Puppy Bowl, Lingerie Bowl, Kitten Bowl, and Fighting Betta Fish Bowl. (I’m sure that last one is available somewhere.)

Now, all this isn’t bad. New knowledge in an ever-fractionalized media universe is always welcomed. Still, one can get swamped by all the new “big data.”

“Big data is exciting, but also daunting,” said Linda Yaccarino, president of advertising sales for NBCUniversal,  during a recent call announcing a product that will feature addressable advertising in national TV inventory across Comcast Corp.’s 20 million-plus subscriber footprint.

So it’s a super bowl of media/marketing analysis. Trouble is, you have too many players on the field -- which makes it hard to see the performance of the game and the advertising.