With the economy in a slump, it’s no surprise that advertising spots for Super Bowl XLIII have sold at a slower pace than previous years and several big players have chosen to sit out this game. Despite the downturn, however, many perennial advertisers are back, and consumers are eager to see this year’s advertising lineup. At $3 million for a 30-second spot, the stakes are especially high for marketers at this year’s Super Bowl — and 140 million viewers will be tuning in on game day to see the hits and misses.
What: As pressure builds for 2009 Super Bowl advertisers to perform, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the world’s No. 1 business school for marketing, will spearhead the annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review. For the fifth consecutive year, marketing faculty and members of the Kellogg Marketing Club will convene in Evanston, Ill., to watch the event, rate the advertisers on a series of academic criteria known as ADPLAN and produce a final ranking of the most — and least — successful advertisers from this year’s Super Bowl.
Kellogg marketing professors will lead the 2009 Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, serving as non-biased resources to address hot topics surrounding Super Bowl advertising this year.
— What are the biggest advertising trends for Super Bowl XLIII?
— How have ads changed this year due to the economy and feelings of consumer uncertainty?
— What qualities are essential to a strong Super Bowl ad in a recession?
— How can marketers leverage interest in social media to generate buzz for their ad beyond game day?
Who: Kellogg School of Management Professor Tim Calkins leads the Review. A clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School since 1998, Calkins teaches courses in marketing strategy and acts as co-academic director of the school’s branding program. Each year, he provides a well-received Super Bowl advertising review for students and alumni. Calkins is co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) and is the author of Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) as well as numerous Kellogg case studies.
Professor Derek D. Rucker, who also leads the Review, is an assistant professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management. In addition to his ongoing research in the areas of consumer metacognition, consumer emotion, consumer information processing and judgment, he teaches the advertising strategy course at Kellogg. A Kellogg School faculty member since 2005, Rucker has been published in a number of academic journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
New for 2009: Professors Calkins and Rucker will be blogging about Super Bowl advertising to offer comments and insights into this year’s advertising trends. Visit the blog at http://kelloggsuperbowlreview.wordpress.com.
When: Professors Calkins and Rucker are available for comment in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. They are also available the night of the game, Sunday, February 1, 2009, and all day on Monday, February 2, 2009, for interviews via phone, e-mail and in person.
To learn more about Professor Calkins, Professor Rucker and the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review, contact Aaron Mays or Betsy Berger at the contact information below. To learn more, visit http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/superbowl/index.htm.
