Super Bowl Ads Help Pad Your Bonus?

A couple of days ago, I brought up the fact that the air time for a Super Bowl ad can be up to $3 million. Now, needless to say, that’s a lot of coin for eyeballs. Especially for companies whose ads have minimal impact on the sale of actual products. I mean, why are there Bombardier Corporate ads? Or ads for pharmaceutical companies?

The HSBC, Bank of China and International Finance Buildings in Hong Kong

It turns out that the actual products might be beside the point. Kenneth Kim, a finance researcher at State University of New York, has found that well-liked Super Bowl ads cause an uptick in stock price for the companies behind those ads, without a similar increase in revenue. And there’s no downside, either: the researchers also found that low-rated commercials didn’t depress stock prices. Needless to say, that must make executives, who are often paid in-part or full with stock options, happy Monday morning quarterbacks. Oh, the lame metaphors.

- Christian

Source: Fast Company