In what appears to be a broadside aimed at the CRTC and its decision to remove simultaneous substitution from Canadian Super Bowl telecasts beginning next year, Bell Media has released a new study that claims to demonstrate the efficacy of Canadian ads during the year’s most watched TV broadcast.
The partnership with Toronto-based Brainsights measured the brainwave activity of 54 adults during the Super Bowl 50 telecast. It found 14 of the top 20 most-engaging ads during the telecast belonged to advertisers exclusive to the broadcast.
Brainsights used portable brainwave readers – or electroencephalograms – capable of measuring brainwave activity every two milliseconds to record the brain activity of Canadians as they watched the Super Bowl.
The company then mined that data to determine an ACE score that tracked levels of attention and alertness (A), emotional connection (C) and encoding to memory (E).
According to the research, the top five spots in the telecast included Royale (“Tiger Towel Food Truck”), which boasted an ACE score 37% greater than the average for all advertising in the telecast.
Three of the top five ads belonged to the automotive category, including Honda’s “Civic Nation Membership,” Mazda’s “The Proposal” and Ford’s “Undisputed” ad. The fourth highest-scoring ad promoted Beyonce’s “The Foundation Tour.”
While the highest-scoring ads lacked the viral appeal and celebrity cache of their splashy U.S. counterparts, Brainsights founder and CEO Kevin Keane said that placement was the most important factor in viewer reaction. The Royale ad, for example, was the first ad to run after the end of the first quarter.
Jeff Hersh, vice-president of strategy, revenue management and research for Bell Media, said that the company plans to conduct additional neuro-research in an attempt to deliver “new opportunities and advertising solutions” related to its content.
The research also found that the top moments in the telecast belonged to reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry welcoming the Panthers to the field, the replay of Jonathan Stewart’s over-the-top touchdown and Jordan Norwood’s 61-yard punt return, the longest in Super Bowl history.
Winning quarterback Peyton Manning’s promise that he was going to “drink a lot of Budweiser” – a mention that has valued at US$1.6 million in media exposure for the beer brand – also scored high with participants in the study.
Bell Media is currently fighting a CRTC decision to eliminate simsub from the Super Bowl beginning next year, a decision that opens up the Canadian telecast to U.S. commercials.
