Superadvertisers skip advertising during superbowl

Interestingly enough, many super-advertisers skip this years super-bowl. P&G, Unilever, Microsoft all won’t show a single ad during the game.

There are some noteworthy quotes in that article:

A quote of John B. Williams, general manager-Windows global communications

We think we have a product and a message that stands alone. Borrowed interest is always something you look at, but [our marketing] will give us more pop, in our opinion, than going into a Super Bowl environment.

A P&G spokesperson stated via email:

Simply put, we’re looking to optimize the intro of the new campaign, and the Super Bowl was not part of the strategy

Seems like the main advertising sports event had reached its peak last year and is now on the decline. At least as long as they don’t change something about the setup – i.e. prices, integration with other media/events/channels, whatever. Does that mean advertisers will shift more to online? Not necessarily so. Dove experienced good results with outdoor last year and expects more resonation of the academy awards.

In the end it shows that currently everything is under close scrutiny, even events like the superbowl…