• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 9, 2006

MVP Hines Ward went to Disney World, Ben Roethlisberger became a saint on Madison Avenue, and "The Bus" rode off into sweet retirement--but what happened in the PR and Ad Bowls? A new study shows that these two "games" are far from one and the same.

The PR battle mostly takes place in the days leading up to the game, as companies try to build excitement for their spots and garner publicity for themselves. Then, just after kickoff, PR takes a backseat to advertising itself as spinmeisters lose influence and the creative itself determines media attention.

The just-released research by Bacon's Multivision, which monitors broadcast media coverage of Super Bowl ads, shows that three marketers generated significant interest before the game, then flamed out after: Pizza Hut, GoDaddy, and CareerBuilder. On the other hand, Diet Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, and Ameriquest drew moderate attention (at best) prior to Sunday, but became media darlings in the post-game breakdown. Pizza Hut leveraged Jessica Simpson--who starred in its spot--to gain a 20 percent share of voice in the pre-game coverage, but then saw a decline to 3 percent in the aftermath.

Meanwhile, GoDaddy capitalized on the flood of coverage about whether its spot would even be approved by ABC into a 15 percent pre-game share, but dropped to 8 percent after. And CareerBuilder rode coverage about the return of its miserable workplace with monkeys to a 14 percent pre-game share--but got largely lost in the post-game ad recaps, with a 4 percent share.

The opposite was the case for Anheuser-Busch--which saw its Bud and Bud Light ads fail to crack a 3 percent share of voice before the game, but then zoom to 20 percent after. Diet Pepsi and its celebrity parade of Jay Mohr, P. Diddy, Jackie Chan--and, well, the Diet Pepsi can--only had a 4 percent share before, but captured the post-game crown with a 29 percent share. And Ameriquest, with its humorous spots about not jumping to judgment, had a less than .5 percent share before the game, then soared to 6 percent.

Perhaps the best two-sport performer is FedEx, whose "Caveman" spot had a 9 percent share of voice before the game and 10 percent after. "A high share of voice before the Super Bowl shows your pre-game PR was very strong," said Brent Bamberger, vice president of marketing at Multivision. "If you have an increased share of voice after the game, it shows your advertising was very strong."

Multivision monitored broadcast coverage of Super Bowl spots from Jan. 1 through Feb. 7 (network, cable, and in the top-50 markets). Many companies now invest heavily in PR campaigns around their spots in the pre-game, as which ads to look for has become a huge news story. Multivision research shows that's only increasing--there were 6,663 pre-game stories this year, up from 463 in 2002. Post-game stories are usually "round-ups" where news organizations feature clips from standout ads, either their favorites or perhaps leaders in the USA Today Ad Meter poll.

Why did companies like Pizza Hut, GoDaddy, and CareerBuilder experience such a precipitous drop in share of voice? Bamberger attributes Pizza Hut's initial success to the buzz around Jessica Simpson's recent break-up with husband Nick Lachey, a nice news hook for a story. But, he says, ho-hum creative left it lost in the shuffle after the game.

GoDaddy and CareerBuilder, Bamberger says, suffered from lack of innovation. Last year, GoDaddy--the beneficiary of a spot Fox refused to air a second time, ushering in publicity frenzy--had a 52 percent post-game share of voice, the highest that Multivision has ever measured.

This year, the halo effect from last year's controversy and a rash of rejections of proposed creative by ABC gave it a solid 15 percent pre-game share--but that declined sharply after the spot aired because it was very similar to last year, featuring a woman about to lose her top. CareerBuilder saw a high level of interest after it said its monkeys would return this year, but the ads were similar to 2005.

"Sequels don't always do as well as the original," Bamberger said. Bamberger attributes Anheuser-Busch's success in the post-game to the sheer volume of spots it ran: One was bound to create a stir, and the ad with a secret refrigerator stocked with Bud Light did. In Diet Pepsi's case, he says celebrities helped; it's hard not to include a clip in news coverage from spots with so many big names to showcase. Also, unlike Pizza Hut, Diet Pepsi waited until only a few days before kickoff to reveal details of its creative, perhaps avoiding media fatigue.

Bamberger added that Ameriquest's spots delivered strongly with their humor, and might have garnered even a larger post-game share of voice but for the fact many newscasters weren't familiar with the company, making it hard to talk about on-air.

Three other marketers with strategic PR initiatives succeeded in creating pre-game hype, but then saw their efforts offset when the creative didn't deliver: Nationwide, Burger King, and Toyota.

Nationwide drummed up interest (10 percent share of voice) when word leaked that model Fabio would star in its spot--but that faded to 4 percent. Burger King publicized that its spot would be a lavish MGM-style musical featuring the "Whopperettes" and did some stealth marketing--"romantically linking" model Brooke Burke, who was in the spot, and "the King." But the ad didn't resonate, and share of voice dropped from 9 percent to 4 percent. And Toyota generated significant coverage after it announced it would air the first bilingual ad in Super Bowl history--but the joint English-Spanish spot was unremarkable on-air, and share plunged from 2 percent to .2 percent.

"The worst scenario would be huge success in the pre-game and little post-game because you want people to move to action," Bamberger said, "And if no one's talking about the ad, it means there's little chance they'll buy your product."

Two others that failed to light much of a fire before or after the game were Emerald Nuts and Aleve. Emerald tried to spark interest by running national print ads about its ad. And Aleve featured Leonard Nimoy--but he wasn't dressed like Mr. Spock, and it got lost in space.