What’s Captifying the world: Legacy Super Bowl advertisers shift spend away from the big game toward charitable donations and Covid-19 relief, resulting in a surge in positive search sentiment

This time last year, the internet was in mourning after Planters killed off Mr. Peanut.

Like many things, the Super Bowl is set to look very different this year, as big brands take a timeout.

The match itself has the potential to be historic—a game of the new versus the old guard. Tom Brady, the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will be vying for his 7th Super Bowl win against Patrick Mahomes, last year’s Super Bowl MVP and dubbed as the future of the NFL. 

Sitting on the sidelines = surging search sentiment

Captify analyzed billions of searches and identified that the brands sitting out of this year’s Super Bowl, Audi, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, are actually seeing rising positive search sentiment compared to the 2020 Super Bowl when they advertised—increasing +20%, +18%, and +14% respectively YoY. 

Despite not spending or investing in the Super Bowl, redistributing budgets to charitable donations and Covid-19 vaccination awareness efforts have had an even greater impact. 

This is further reflected in the brand’s connected searches—for example, consumers that search for Coca-Cola are searching around Covid-19 18.1 times more than any other audience, and the vaccine 4.6 times more. Audiences that search for Audi are also searching around Covid-19 vaccines 14.6 times more. Budweiser is also closely linked to Covid-19 searches.

So, are the Super Bowl ads really worth it?

Leaving viewers thirsty for more

Captify revealed that over 90% of brand share of search for the 2021 Super Bowl is being held by those sitting out this year, with Audi commanding over 63.3%.

• Audi—63.3%
• Coca-Cola—16.6%
• Budweiser—10.2%
• Pepsi—9.7%
• Bud Light—0.2% (part of the Super Bowl lineup)

With Super Bowl newcomers such as Hellman’s, Chipotle, Huggies, and Uber Eats joining the big leagues this year, these brands might be reconsidering whether there is a more impactful way to spend their marketing dollars. 

Returning brands, like Mountain Dew, have actually seen a 79% decrease in YoY searches, with Frito-Lay seeing a search decrease for both Doritos, -82% and Cheetos, -62%.

Using sentiment as a search signal

With many big moments being shaped by shifting consumer behavior, brand marketers can lean on signals such as search sentiment to understand the impact of their marketing efforts on how consumers feel about their brand—producing real-time opportunities to connect with audiences in the most emotive way possible.

To understand how search sentiment is impacting your brand, get in touch.

*Data sourced from Captify’s US network from 01/17/20-01/26/20 vs 01/22/21-01/31/21