Popular music in Super Bowl commercials 2005-2014
International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship
ISSN: 1464-6668
Article publication date: 7 November 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to quantify and qualify the commercials in the Super Bowl.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a content analysis of the placement of popular music in Super Bowl advertisements over a ten-year period (2005-2014).
Findings
More than a quarter of the commercials analyzed contained popular music. Although the use of popular music in commercials vacillated from year to year, popular music was most often observed in the product category of beverages; the music treatment most often used was original vocals; and song lyrics were most often relevant to the narrative of the commercial, rather than the brand.
Originality/value
This study extends the growing body of Super Bowl advertising research to popular music in commercials and provides a benchmark for all future research in this area.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper was presented at 2014 MEIEA Summit Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on March 21, 2014. The authors would like to thank Bill Daddi and Kantar Media for providing access to the commercial logs from the past ten Super Bowls and Billboard Magazine for permission to use Figure 1.
Citation
Allan, D. and Tryce, S.A. (2016), "Popular music in Super Bowl commercials 2005-2014", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 333-348. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-11-2016-019
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited