Dive Brief:

• The Super Bowl is less than three weeks away and Intel is the only brand to release a teaser TV spot for the game, according to Marketing Land.
• By this time last year, three brands had released teaser ads and three more had unveiled their Super Bowl creative overlook.
• In fact, last season, Butterfinger and Wix both released teaser videos as early as December. Carla Marshall, editor-in-chief of TubularInsights.com, told Marketing Land that brands have become more conscious of consumer fatigue stating, "We know there is a lot of excitement and anticipation around Super Bowl content, but a long run-up in terms of teasers may have less impact than a big launch a few days before."

Dive Insight:

The Super Bowl has long been more than just the culmination of the NFL season, acting as a showcase for brands’ major TV campaigns for the new year, with some viewers throwing Super Bowl parties purely to watch the latest ads instead of on-field action. However, the NFL has been hurt by low TV ratings over the past season, partially due to other media events like the presidential elections, but also because of a variety of alternative digital channels to watch, including Twitter. 

While teasing out TV spots via digital channels has been in vogue in recent years, marketers might be being more careful to preserve the element of surprise and "destination viewing" for their linear ad offerings. According to MediaPost, Fox could potentially generate $500 million in ad revenue from Super Bowl LI, with 30-second spots going for more than $5 million. Last year’s breakout digital success was Snapchat and its Gatorade sponsored lenses that generated 224 million views. This year, the social media app is offering ad packages as high as $5 million, per Ad Age.

Devra Prywes, SVP of marketing and insight at Unruly, told Marketing Land that last year’s ads were also interesting in that main ads outperformed teasers as expected, but extended versions of the TV spots were actually shared more often for the first time. Unruly’s "Science of Sharing: Super Bowl 50" found teaser ads were almost 30% of the total Super Bowl ad count but only generated 10% of total views and 2% of shares, two metrics that also likely impacted brands' limited release of teasers this year.