• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 30, 2005

The New England Patriots and The Philadelphia Eagles may be going to the Super Bowl on Sunday, but when it comes to the performance of advertisers during CBS' and Fox's post-season NFL coverage, Southwest Airlines was the real winner. Sixteen of the 18 ad units bought by the airline ran in "A" positions, or the first position in the commercial breaks they appeared in, according an analysis of commercial pod data by Media IQ.

The findings are noteworthy, because A positions are thought to have higher ad exposure, attentiveness and commercial recall than commercial airing elsewhere in a commercial pod. This can be especially true in live events such as football games, where attention can peak during key points in a game. "Southwest Airlines took its A positions in the break directly after the kickoffs at the start of each half," notes Brian Cauley, a partner at Media IQ, a firm that analyses the performance of media buys for big advertisers.

The special treatment of an airline like Southwest is striking, says Cauley, because other ad categories are known to be big supporters of NFL coverage, such as automotive, beers, technology and financial services.

"The automobile category far outspends the other categories in the NFL post-season. Their A average reflects this volume with car commercials running in the A position about 50 percent of the time," notes Cauley. "This is very consistent among the big NFL participants: General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, and Toyota."

The next best performing category was beer, followed by technology and wireless communications marketers, which all beat what Media IQ deemed to be the "equitable rotation" of A positions in the games.

"Equitable distribution of As for both Fox and CBS post-season NFL was about 30 percent. So, the high percentages of As awarded to Southwest, the autos, and the beers, come with a price: certain other categories got below equitable [rotations]," says Cauley, singling out movies, fast food, insurance, pharmaceutical financial services, which he quips, "all get tackled for a loss."

Beyond commercial pod rotations, Cauley notes that "in-game brand mentions" were similar on both CBS' and Fox's coverage: "The halftime sponsors, Nextel on CBS and Visa on Fox, received the same number of mentions from the game announcers. Subway, the post-game sponsor on both nets, was also promoted similarly on each network."

Percentage Of 'A' Positions During NFL Post-Season

Advertiser/Category    # Units
# A Positions   % A Positions 
Southwest Air               18              16             89% 
Automobiles                129              65             50% 
Beer                        74
34             46% 
Technology                  38              14             37% 
Wireless                    37              12             32% 
Financial Services          41
8             20% 
Pharmaceutical              23               4             17% 
Movies/DVDs                 29               5             17% 
Fast Food                   56
9             16% 
Insurance                   13               2             15% 

Source: Media IQ. Largest categories only, including in-game commercial pods on CBS' and Fox's post-season NFL coverage.