Nielsen Offers Analysis of Super Bowl XLII

NEW YORK, February 8: The
Nielsen Company has released an analysis of viewership and advertising trends
from Super Bowl XLII, which attracted a record audience of 97.4 million people
in the U.S.

This year’s Super Bowl
featured the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. In terms of total
audience, 148.3 million people watched at least 6 minutes of Super Bowl XLII,
making it the Super Bowl with the largest reach (unduplicated audience) ever.
Locally, Boston had the number-one Metered Market performance with a 55.6
household rating. New York was ranked 32 with a 44.9 household rating. The
number of viewers watching the Super Bowl on Sunday was surpassed only by the 106
million who saw the series finale of M*A*S*H in February 1983.

Super Bowl XLII also drew
large numbers of ethnic viewers. Ratings for African-American persons aged 2
and older were up 4 percent over the previous year. Hispanic and Asian viewers
drew an 18.0 and 21.8 rating among persons aged 2 and older, respectively. The
game also delivered strong ratings in upscale households with persons aged 2
and older in homes with an income of $100,000-plus indexing 24 percent higher
than the total U.S. audience. If education is factored in, those households of
persons aged 2 and older with 4-plus years of college indexed 14 percent higher
than the total U.S. audience.

Within DVR households,
Super Bowl XLII averaged a 39.8 rating among persons 2 and older—17 percent
higher than the total U.S. audience. In households with HD capable/receivable
television sets, Super Bowl XLII averaged a 47.6 rating among persons 2 and
older—a 40-percent increase over the total U.S. audience. Within homes
that had Internet access, Super Bowl XLII averaged a 36.7 rating among persons
2 and older—8 percent higher than the total U.S. audience.

For Super Bowl-related
advertising, the highest-rated commercial minute was the Victoria's Secret spot
at 9:44 p.m., which was seen by 103.7 million people and scored a rating of 36.2.
The commercial that had the highest gain from DVR playback was Disney’s The
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
movie promotion, which was viewed by 4.1 million people on DVR playback. Nielsen
began adding households with DVRs to its sample in late 2005; this is the
second Super Bowl in which DVR playback has been included in the television
ratings.

According to live polling
results from Nielsen’s new social-networking site, HeyNielsen.com, the
Budweiser Horse/Dalmation spot was the most popular ad. Pepsi's ad with Justin
Timberlake generated the most buzz online, accounting for 6.7 percent of Super
Bowl ad discussion, followed by E*TRADE with 5.2 percent. According to Nielsen
Online, 33 percent of all online consumer discussion involving Super Bowl XLII
was about advertisements.

Nielsen also found that
this year, more than ever, Super Bowl advertisers focused on driving online
traffic with their premium TV spots. In turn, the Internet is dramatically
increasing the longevity of Super Bowl ads, with the rise of social-networking
and video-sharing sites. Among Super Bowl advertisers, the fastest-growing
website was Fox Interactive Media's MySpace.com/SuperBowlAds, increasing 104
percent from 441,000 to 900,000 unique visitors.

According to Nielsen's
Sponsorship Scorecard, which measures exposure to in-game advertising, Cadillac
was the top brand in terms of gross impressions. This was due in large part to
Cadillac's sponsorship of the MVP award, won by New York Giant quarterback Eli
Manning, and the corresponding graphic that remained on screen during the
entire post-game ceremony.

This year's Super Bowl
aired 50 minutes and 50 seconds of commercial time. Fifty-two brands aired
commercials that competed for viewers' attention for a total of 84
advertisements. The categories that advertised the most this year included
automotive, motion pictures, and beer.

For the second year in a
row, Nielsen Strategic Media Research conducted an online study following the
Super Bowl in order to learn more about Super Bowl commercials and viewing in
high definition. In this survey, conducted between 7 a.m. on Monday and 1 a.m.
on Wednesday, 274 randomly-selected individuals aged 12 and older were asked
about their Super Bowl viewing experience. Nielsen discovered that 41 percent
of viewers watched the Super Bowl in HD, with those who viewed the game in HD
able to recall 21 percent more commercials than respondents who did not view in
HD; and people who viewed the Super Bowl in HD were 80 percent more likely than
non-HD viewers to be watching the game in a group of six or more people.

—By Irene Lew