The Super Bowl may be the biggest mass-reach media event around, but it’s also increasingly seen as a gold mine for brands eager to build one-on-one relationships and first-party consumer databases, particularly as personal digital identifiers go away.

While using a mass event to build precision marketing may seem a contradiction, it’s not necessarily. Super Bowl ads generate big, if usually short-lived, spikes in search, e-commerce sales and traffic to brand websites, even when brands don’t try to capture the data. But given the cost of being in the game, pegged at around $7 million for a 30-second spot this year, not having a data strategy attached to the plan looks like a waste.

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This year, such brands as Avocados From Mexico, Unilever’s Hellmann’s, and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Michelob either have stated plans to use the game to help build first-party relationships or have elements surrounding their Super Bowl appearances that clearly will do that.

Last year, Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Huggies saw collecting first-party data as an important part of the unusual appearance for its baby care brand in the game. Even though the brand was reaching far more people than could conceivably be thinking of conceiving, expecting or having babies, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Zena Arnold said the game was also meant “to drive our larger data-driving marketing strategy by incorporating a lot of messaging and engagement through digital channels, social media and our website.”

And it turns out Huggies was among last year’s top brands at generating website visits—and presumably first-party relationships—according to data from SimilarWeb. Even as of November, Huggies website traffic was still running 12.9% ahead of the year before, according to SimilarWeb.

Not every Super Bowl website traffic bump was seen as much of an opportunity by the brand. Oatly was one of the stronger players last year in driving site traffic on game day and long-term after the game, per SimilarWeb, but its site has little aimed at collecting e-mail addresses or data.

“For Oatly, it was more of a side benefit than anything,” said a spokeswoman about the Super Bowl traffic surge. “The real benefit was getting America talking about a plant-based milk alternative.”

Paramount+, which used the Super Bowl to launch, had the biggest in-game traffic bump, per SimilarWeb. That’s evidence of one of the biggest drivers of in-game traffic—celebrity involvement—said Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO, which tracks search response to TV ads.

Ad itself may be bad place to solicit data

Almost every brand in the game could try to generate new online relationships and harvest the related data for future use, just from website traffic alone. But the Super Bowl broadcast ad itself may be a bad vehicle for attracting the data.

“This year, 2022, is the year of CPG clients, in particular, having first-party data as a priority,” said Kate Sirkin, executive VP of global data partnerships for Publicis Epsilon, and a former executive VP of research for Starcom Mediavest group, much of that doing Super Bowl research. “Everybody’s talking about it: How can we collect it? What do we do with it?”

For brands in the game, it may be irresistible to use the opportunity to use the exposure to build much bigger databases. But she said bigger isn’t necessarily better.

“The Super Bowl is so big, bigger than most brands’ real customers, even the beers and the Coca-Colas of the world,” she said. “It’s probably too big.”

That’s because, ideally, brands populate their first-party databases with their best customers, Sirkin said, not folks who just dropped in because they were interested in a funny ad. The cost of processing and analyzing data for people who have little lifetime value as customers could outweigh the advantages of casting a wide net.

“A smarter strategy would be to say: ‘I’ve got four elements to my Super Bowl events—and that’s a great place to play first-party data,’” Sirkin said. That includes collecting data from promotions linked to the game, people who attend in person or events surrounding the game, people who buy snacks and beer in advance of the game, or watch ads online that are released in advance, she said, “making sure that I’ve tagged correctly my owned properties and my ad so that I can recognize those people.”

Unilever’s Hellmann’s, for example, is looking to develop first-party relationships via launch of its Fridge Night app linked to its Super Bowl campaign, but it’s not plugging the app directly via the broadcast ad, said Ben Crook, senior director of condiments at Unilever.

Bomber jackets and stock-up social ads

AB InBev, an Epsilon client, has six spots in the game, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Bud Light Hard Seltzer, Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer, and Cutwater Spirits. The company and Epsilon declined to comment on its first-party data strategy around the game. But it’s clear just from Michelob Ultra alone that data gathering is on the menu. The brand is debuting a “Spare Clothes Clothing” collection, arranging for Serena Williams, who stars in its ad, to wear a limited-edition Superior Bowl bomber jacket that will be part of an integration with NBC’s broadcast. People buying from the clothing collection will likely enter the brand’s database.

When Michelob Ultra pre-released its ad on Tuesday, it also paired that with “Welcome to the Superior Bowl” social-media ads, using a MikMak.tv platform to encourage people to stock up on the brand’s beer for the game via Instacart. AB InBev didn’t comment on whether it’s building first-party data through those sales —but it’s certainly possible, as Sirkin describes it, though not commenting on the brand’s plans directly.

“As long as brands have negotiated rights to the e-commerce data and the platform has consumer consent to share them,” then it would be possible for brands to hold onto data developed through such sales, she said.

E-commerce and search strategies

“For alcohol brands, the Super Bowl is the first major event of the e-commerce season,” said MikMak CEO Rachel Tipograph.MikMak last year found that Facebook and Instagram drive 67% of all alcohol eCommerce traffic and 39% of all alcohol e-commerce sales. But brands also increasingly are using their own platforms to drive sales, she said, with 5% of all alcohol e-commerce traffic and 16% of all alcohol e-commerce sales occurring directly on brand websites.

Get the latest Ad Age Super Bowl 2022 news here.

Because a Super Bowl ad so often drives big if temporary spikes in e-commerce sales, brands are missing out if they don’t use the opportunity to develop first-party relationships, either through deals with e-commerce operators or their own direct sales, said Sarah Hofstetter, president of e-commerce analytics firm Profitero.

Even if brands don’t put response elements directly into Super Bowl ads, certainly they can optimize organic and paid search on Google or retailer sites during the game, Hofstetter said. That isn’t necessarily limited to the brands advertising. Their competitors can do likewise. Last year, when Huggies was advertising, rival Procter & Gamble Co., marketer of Pampers and Luvs, was clearly stepping up search activity on diapers, she said.

Viewers who see a spot in the Super Bowl are 345% more likely to search for that advertiser than viewers of everyday primetime ads, said EDO’s Krim. “Data over the past six big games shows that a single 30-second Super Bowl spot can drive hundreds of thousands and even millions of people to search and engage with the brand online.”

That being the case, it also pays for any brand in the game to make sure it owns relevant URLs that might come up in search. Molson Coors appears to have pranked AB InBev’s Bud Light Next in advance of that brand’s ad this year by grabbing hold of BudLightNext.com, though the site was taken down as of Friday.

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CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story quoted a MikMak spokesperson saying the platform can capture physical addresses of people placing orders through its ads, even if the e-commerce site fulfilling them isn’t sharing that data. The spokesperson and the company later said that the company cannot capture physical addresses of end users. It can capture Zip Codes, given proper consent, but leaves data collection from sales through its platform to agreements between brands and e-commerce retailers.