California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute

A little goes a long way when it comes to companies talking about their products
in advertisements aired during the Super Bowl, according to a new study.

"More is definitely less," said Dr. Rama Yelkur, professor of marketing from the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who was a lead researcher on the project,
which she believes is the most comprehensive Super Bowl advertising study to
date. "If you want to have a popular Super Bowl ad, don't talk much about your
products. The more advertisers talked about their products on Super Sunday, the
less the viewers liked the ads."

The finding is contrary to what conventional advertising wisdom suggests, but the
"less is more" factor was a significant finding in the research, said Dr. Chuck
Tomkovick, who worked with Yelkur on the project.

"How much or how little you say in the ad doesn't matter, but what you talk about
matters a lot," said Tomkovick, noting that the project expanded upon research
they published in 2001. "The amount of product information shared has a significant
impact on ad likeability. Super Bowl audiences demand creativity in commercials
and want to hear about new products, but they only want limited information about
the product itself."

The researchers found the top five variables that influence Super Bowl ad likeability
are (in order of importance): the presence of humor, animals, product information
(very little), product category (food and beverages do best) and children.

Super Bowl ads continues to grow, as does the cost to air ads during the game,
Tomkovick said, noting that 30-second ads in the 2010 Super Bowl will exceed $2.5
million.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.