Yet Another Super Bowl Ad Study Touts Meaningless Results

What most Super Bowl ad results studies fail to address is the true effectiveness of the ad. In other words, did it sell stuff for the brand? Only the brand can truthfully tell us that. But that hasn't stopped anyone placing various levels of credence on any study that happens to find its way to a press release.

Not that anyone cares three weeks after the game but a recent study conducted by Sands research using lectroencephalography (EEG) recordings and eye-tracking found VW's Punch Dub commercial to be the top ad. By quite a margin. That ad was followed by Vizio's Frge, Budweiser's Bridge, Google's Parisian Love and Brigstone's Whale of a Tail.

Sand Research Chairman and Chief Science Officer Stephen Sands explained the study's methodology, saying, "By conducting neuromedia analysis based on EEG readings rather than recall or more unreliable instant analysis peripheral measures such as heart rate, we are able to effectively determine the dimensions on which commercials are engaging viewers, and also an ad's chance for success."

Um...whatever. These studies are like advertising awards. They are pointless and mean nothing. The only thing that matters is sales. OK, maybe some squishy brand identity bullshit is fine once in a while when the stock price needs to be tweaked but an ad's "creativity," it's "recall" or its "likability" has little do do with the all important bottom line.

Click the image in this article to see the full results of the study.