Crypto Super Bowl ads likely to 'pique enough interest' to attract new consumers, expert says

Kearney Consumer Institute Lead Katie Thomas sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to talk about the likelihood of cryptocurrency Super Bowl ads, beer brands finding opportunities in crypto and the metaverse, the cost of Super Bowl advertising, and sports gambling.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, from an on-screen reunion of real life couple Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost with Amazon's Alexa to Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen selling potato chips, this year's slate of Super Bowl ads set to be yet another celebrity-filled event. But another big star, crypto.

Let's talk about Katie-- let's bring in Katie Thomas, Kearney Consumer Institute lead. And Katie, let's talk about the exposure or how much we're likely to see crypto here. It seems like a natural transition. We've seen exchanges like FTX all over baseball playoffs, basketball as well. How significant a presence are we going to see crypto in Super Bowl ads?

KATIE THOMAS: Yeah, Akiko, it's looking pretty meaningful here. We're hearing things like it's being referred to as the crypto bull. And I've heard a handful of five or six different crypto companies are going to be advertising this year's Super Bowl. And I think it's really powerful. It's the right time to do it because ultimately, there's still a lot of consumer confusion and even just intimidation around crypto.

So having just one ad maybe wouldn't get enough consumers over the hump, but seeing a handful of ads is going to probably pique enough interest that consumers will then go ahead and do their own research and find out a little bit more. The challenge for brands will potentially be to stand out amongst the different crypto organizations, but still a great opportunity just to get consumer eyeballs and really gain some interest there.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey, Katie, it's Brian Cheung here. But let's talk about the companies that even aren't crypto companies, right? I'm talking about, let's say, the big beer companies. And they've shown that they're interested in wanting to ride the Metaverse, NFT, crypto, SEO wave as well, right? I think it's, what, Miller Lite that has, for some reason, this Metaverse bar going on. And then Bud Light's going to have an NFT collection for some reason. I mean, why is it that even the other traditional consumer brands we're used to seeing are wanting to dive into that space as well?

KATIE THOMAS: Yeah, you're just seeing an opportunity for diversification there. For Miller Lite, specifically, there's sometimes parameters around how they're allowed to advertise during the Super Bowl because of Anheuser-Busch really running the show. So I think they're just using this as an opportunity to get creative. But I think there's been so much chatter around NFTs, the Metaverse, that this is a great opportunity for brands to test and learn and figure out what that overlap is.

We know how many people watch the Super Bowl. The sort of gaming, virtual Metaverse is something we're still learning about. So it's a great chance for brands to really tap into that and understand where the opportunity lies, I mean. And then you're seeing it in sillier, more tactical ways, too, right? Captain Morgan has created a punch bowl that's a speaker, and it tells you the store. So you're seeing consumer engagement being tested in different ways in a nice, lighthearted approach to the Super Bowl this year.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, it feels like hyper engagement, right? You don't know which screen to be looking at here. The NFL has had really great ratings throughout the playoffs. Obviously, the ratings expected to get a big bump from last year's Super Bowl, too. I mean, who knows? But I wonder what the payoff is for some of these brands. And that's a conversation that's been playing out over the last few years. Is it worth the millions for that 30-second spot? Is the payoff still there during the Super Bowl?

KATIE THOMAS: I know. It's a complicated question. I mean, as you see here, the average price, $6 and 1/2 million. Some brands paying upwards of $7 million, including these new crypto brands, that don't necessarily have a longstanding relationship with the NFL or NBC. So it's complicated there. Now the reality is, though, ultimately, is a lot of these brands compete in increasingly crowded categories. And the challenge is just that, which is a competition for consumer eyeballs.

So even though the ROI can be hard to measure, to get that much scale and to drive some interest and traction in the brand, and then especially thinking about what consumers are going to do with it next. So how do we take the eyeballs on the brand from the Super Bowl and really translate that into purchase and not just awareness is where there will really be a difference maker. But I think there is power in the Super Bowl this year, just given the momentum we see going in, as well as just trying to break through the noise of, to your point, all the different media platforms we're using at any given time.

BRIAN CHEUNG: And then, Katie, obviously, sports betting, it used to be the case that the only way you could bet would be by the squares where you're betting on the score of the game, which, by the way, I put our office pool together-- really hard to do. Not easy to put together those squares. But I want to ask, obviously, now with a bunch of states legalizing sports gambling, you can place bets on the spreads or player props. Should we expect to see the flow of Caesars ads and DraftKings ads that we've already seen the last few months also invade the Super Bowl as well?

KATIE THOMAS: Yeah, at one time, Brian, I managed our office's March Madness pool, and I certainly came to regret it.

BRIAN CHEUNG: It's so hard.

KATIE THOMAS: Yeah. But yeah, you know, I think the great thing about gambling, I mean, certainly, it has some inherent risk in its own right. But the great thing about DraftKings and FanDuel and some of these other sites is it really just drives additional interest in the game.

So especially a year like this where the Bengals and the Rams aren't your traditional teams, not quite what you'd expect, just a couple of fun bets can drive a lot of interest in the game, as well as the different parlays you can do and all the specific things you can bet on. So yeah, I think you'll see a lot of those big brands really take advantage, not just in the Super Bowl, but again, going into March Madness and some of the other big sporting events we have coming up of just letting consumers really have fun with it.

BRIAN CHEUNG: All right, Katie Thomas from the Kearney Consumer Institute, thanks so much for breaking all that down for us. Enjoy the big game this weekend.