How the Super Bowl proves the need for accurate measurement of CTV live-event ad campaigns

With the live-event broadcasting landscape rapidly evolving, especially on connected TV (CTV) platforms, accurately measuring advertising impact remains a challenge. Traditional methods struggle to capture the true value of ads on these platforms, highlighting the need for precise measurement solutions. CTV apps are potent platforms for promoting live events, but the absence of robust cross-media measurement tools capable of accurately gauging CTV reach and brand lift—especially during one-off live events—is a pressing concern. Which brings us to the ultimate live event, the Super Bowl. Beatgrid analysis shows that the Super Bowl is strangely unique in how it sits on the advertising stage, and live events in general. The Super Bowl underscores that the impact of advertising has the most effect at the beginning of the brand funnel. This year’s Super Bowl ads led to an increase in awareness on average of 4.12% for most of the high-reach campaigns, emphasizing the importance of strategic ad placement and message delivery across both traditional linear mediums and CTV platforms. Impacting top of the funnel, brand awareness The reliance on CTV apps’ demand side platforms to measure aggregated channel-reach data offers an incomplete picture, leaving brands to navigate these waters with fragmented data. And let’s not even get started on the ad-effectiveness and brand-lift measurement side of things—that picture is even more incomplete. Nevertheless, analyzing data and success stories from events reveals enduring strategies for brands across traditional and CTV mediums. With Super Bowl LVIII now a distant memory, and as the rest of the world looks toward 2025 and beyond, the measurement of live events is poised for a significant transformation, whether Taylor Swift turns up or not. However, with its grand spectacle and massive audience, the Super Bowl (streamed on Paramount+, and with even the wildcard game also broadcast on a CTV app, Peacock) serves as a critical testing ground for multichannel advertising strategies and continues to provide invaluable nuggets for brands advertising on almost any live event. Three Super Bowl advertisers, three case studies It’s essential to appreciate events like the Super Bowl as occasions for communal enjoyment, offering valuable insights unto themselves. Let’s look at three brands and how they fared with their Super Bowl ads this year: Uber Eats, DoorDash and Dunkin’. When comparing Uber Eats and DoorDash in the flash delivery service market, intriguing trends emerge. Uber Eats’ advertisement boasted higher spontaneous recall, with unaided awareness of +3.4% versus just +0.2% for DoorDash. On the other hand DoorDash’s spot saw a notable increase in consumer consideration of 7.5% versus -2.4% for Uber Eats. Why the disparities? These differing results underscore the importance of balancing humor with relevance to consumer needs. Analysis of various ad types, including celebrity endorsements, humor and direct messaging, reveals Dunkin’ as a standout performer. It achieves significant gains in both awareness (8.4%) and consideration (7.5%), credited to cohesive brand identity, humor, celebrity involvement and clear product presentation. These insights underscore the critical elements for successful advertising campaigns during live events on CTV apps, emphasizing the importance of resonating effectively with audiences and elevating brand recognition. Understanding events like the Super Bowl as opportunities for communal enjoyment provides valuable learnings, enabling advertisers to leverage data-driven strategies to enhance their impact. Additionally, the future of advertising in live events hinges on innovation, precise measurement and personalized audience connection, ensuring messages resonate deeply. The need for more sophisticated analysis Despite the challenges posed by fragmentation, the sustained allure of live TV, especially for events like the Super Bowl, cannot be underestimated. Still, the high stakes associated with securing ad inventory for such events emphasize the ongoing relevance of live TV as a powerful medium for event-based advertising. TV’s relevance is a double-edged sword, offering unparalleled audience engagement opportunities while also demanding more sophisticated measurement and strategy approaches to fully capitalize on its potential. Brands must embrace the multichannel and cross-screen advertising approach to reach all desired audiences, including difficult-to-reach cohorts like 18-to-24-year-olds, 25-to-34s or the Latino community. The need for precise and reliable metrics to measure CTV app incrementality versus linear reach on live events is more important than ever. In addition to advancing technologies, advertisers must recognize the critical elements for successful advertising campaigns during live events on CTV apps to elevate brand recognition and resonate with audiences effectively. The beauty of it is that now CTV apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and others, and their live events, can be measured with agnostic cross-media measurement solutions that can bypass the challenges of walled gardens, and not only in terms of reach but also in brand lift and the overall ad impact of such campaigns. As linear TV fades away, leaving CTV as the main force for broadcasting shows and live events, understanding the value of investing in CTV measurement becomes key. About Beatgrid Beatgrid, founded in 2014 and based in the Netherlands, has quickly emerged as the cross-media advertising-effectiveness currency. Its solution has revolutionized how advertisers gauge the impact of their cross-media investments through person-level and single-source measurement. This new-wave approach leverages a novel panel measurement technique that avoids conventional IP-matching, ensuring a privacy-conscious evaluation with participant consent. Beatgrid's unique method provides a comprehensive view of consumer interactions by passively monitoring audiovisual ad exposures across various channels and directly linking these to brand lift survey responses within the same panel. As the sole provider of a single-source, person-based solution, it employs passive mobile automatic content recognition (ACR) and geofencing technology to offer unparalleled insights into incremental reach, frequency and incremental brand lift. Beatgrid's solution has been validated by leading organizations such as Amazon Ads, Disney Star India, Google, McDonald’s, P&G and Unilever, which have established it as the currency for advertising effectiveness measurement.

How the Super Bowl proves the need for accurate measurement of CTV live-event ad campaigns

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