2024 Super Bowl ads may cater to women viewers – some credit Taylor Swift (2024)
By Sarah BregelFeatures correspondent
Alamy
Brands are leaning into a new demographic for their 2024 Super Bowl ads (Credit: Alamy)
With brands like e.l.f. and Dove taking centre stage in this year's Super Bowl advertisem*nts, it's clear there's a new target market expanding the usual NFL fanbase.
With an audience of over 100m viewers a year, the Super Bowl has long been an ideal time for advertisers to make an impression. But this year, as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, ads could look a bit different. That's because in recent months, the US' National Football League (NFL) has captivated a new audience: Gen Z and millennial women.
Thanks to Taylor Swift's dedicated fanbase, more women and girls are watching American football. The Taylor-effect is massive. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z or Millennial women now have a favourable view of the NFL. While the survey's data shows that women's support of the NFL has been growing since 2017, it has never been higher than since Swift started showing up to support her beau, Chief's star tight end Travis Kelce – surging 11% between July and December of last year. Marketwatch data from Apex Marketing estimates that Swift's presence has created $122m (£97m) of brand value for the NFL.
While last year, advertisers shelled out around $7m (£5.5m) for a 30-second spot during the big game, most of those spots catered to male viewers. Women have long been underrepresented when it comes to Super Bowl ads – but this year, with more women watching, marketers are keen to cash in on the female demographic.
Jed Jecelin, executive creative director for Planit, an Emmy-winning marketing and advertising agency in Baltimore, Maryland, tells the BBC that the Swiftie crowd is bringing a certain "pride and connectedness" that is "powerful and positive" to the American football world. He says that this year, the big game is an opportunity for women-centric brands to stand out among the more typical "food, car, and beverage advertisers".
It's already clear that there will be more women-focused brands aiming to do just that during commercial breaks. Advertising spots by brands likeCeraVe, Dove and e.l.f., have already been confirmed. For e.l.f., the 2024 Super Bowl spot will mark their first national Super Bowl ad, while Dove is returning to the advertising line-up for the first time in nearly two decades.
Getty Images
Brands like e.l.f. and Dove will have spots during the 2024 Super Bowl (Credit: Getty Images)
This change in representation makes perfect sense, say experts. Eileen Ziesemer, a PR consultant who has represented the top beauty brand Ulta Beauty, tells BBC she believes the Super Bowl ads this year will bring "newness in tone and variety of brands and industries represented". She explains that the new female audience who will be watching the Super Bowl this year "often represents leaders of discretionary household budgets, so [it's] a win-win for brands and viewers alike".
Ziesemer expects the Taylor-effect to continue long after the Super Bowl, too. Ziesemer herself will be "watching for many beauty brands and other brave industry leaders" to keep showing up in new "compelling, fun ways" in the traditionally male-dominated area of American football.
And no matter the gender of those on the Super Bowl sidelines (or in the box seats) for the game itself, Jecelin says Super Bowl advertisers should have never left women out to begin with. "Even without Taylor’s involvement, the Super Bowl is an amazing opportunity for women-centric brands," he says. "A beauty brand, for example, can reach significantly higher numbers through the Super Bowl than any other programming in the US."
This year, with Swift's help, female-focused brands will finally come to play.
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Brands 'Taylor' more 2024 Super Bowl ads to womenWith brands like e.l.f. and Dove taking centre stage in this year's Super Bowl advertisem*nts, it's clear there's a new target market expanding the usual NFL fanbase.Worklife
2024 Super Bowl ads may cater to women viewers – some credit Taylor Swift. With brands like e.l.f. and Dove taking centre stage in this year's Super Bowl advertisem*nts, it's clear there's a new target market expanding the usual NFL fanbase.
The halftime show brings in tens of millions of viewers — with 82 percent of the total 123.7 million tuning in this year — making it the largest live broadcast event in which a musician can perform.
As we said in Tuesday's Traina Thoughts, this year's Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Niners drew 123.4 million viewers. Last year's Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles drew 115.1 million viewers. While an overtime game was obviously a huge reason for the ratings increase, there was also the Taylor Swift factor.
While she garnered just 54 seconds of total airtime over the course of the broadcast, Swift's occupation of the Allegiant Stadium luxury box coincided with significant gains with female viewers, with 'tweens and young adults accounting for some of the biggest ratings spikes.
NFL vice president of communications Brian McCarthy told Newsweek in 2022 that the league doesn't pay halftime performers an "appearance fee, but the artists are indeed paid union scale." But Newsweek reported that under the union agreement that would've been about $1,000 a day for the Jennifer Lopez and Shakira Super ...
NEW YORK – February 13, 2024 – An estimated 123.7 million viewers tuned in for Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, February 11, according to average audience estimates from Nielsen. The broadcast averaged 120.3 million viewers on CBS alone, making it the largest audience for a single-network telecast to date.
More than 200 million viewers (202.4) watched all-or-part of Super Bowl LVIII across all networks, the highest unduplicated total audience in history and up +10% versus last year's Super Bowl (183.6 million).
Due to the seating capacity of Allegiant Stadium, the game's sellout attendance of 61,629 was the smallest crowd in Super Bowl history outside of Super Bowl LV, which was played during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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