While Potato Chips enjoyed the largest dollar and volume sales during the Super Bowl period, Tortilla Chips generated the largest incremental gains with $20.7 million and 8.3 million pounds above average sales figures. But what's a chip without a good dip? Dip Mixes (+38% vs. two-week average) and Canned Dips (+24.5%) saw the biggest% surge in sales compared to other snacks for the Super Bowl.
And it's not just junk foods that saw their sales jump for last year's big game. Rice Cakes enjoyed an 11.3% bump in sales in the days surrounding the Super Bowl last year, while Health Bars & Sticks (i.e., PowerBars, LUNAbar, etc.) saw a 3.1% increase.
Among the key findings from Nielsen: TV: Last year's tilt between the Patriots and the Giants was viewed by a record 97.5 million people nationwide. As expected, the Super Bowl was the most-watched TV broadcast in 2008. Advertisers: The cost of a 30-second spot in last year's Super Bowl was $2.7 million. Total spending for the game reached over $195 million. Anheuser-Busch bought the most commercial time (4 minutes total). The highest-rated commercial minute was the Victoria's Secret spot at 9:44pm, seen by 103.7 million viewers. The most-liked ad was produced by the NFL. The most-recalled ad was produced by FedEx. Online: Super Bowl advertisers saw a 24% jump in Web traffic the day after last year's Super Bowl. The Pepsi commercial featuring Justin Timberlake gathered the most Internet buzz. Music and movies: In the week following Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' halftime performance last year, sales of their "Greatest Hits" album jumped 196%. Petty's "Anthology: Through the Years" album jumped 240% that same week. Box office sales on the weekend of Super Bowl Sunday show notable decline. The NFL Super Bowl XLII DVD was the #1 selling sports DVD in 2008. Snacks and beer: The Super Bowl is the 8th-largest beer-selling event each year. Markets with hometown teams involved in the big game are more likely buy more beer. Potato chips are the snack of choice at Super Bowl parties, but tortilla chips are quickly gaining. Consumer trends: There's a softer side to football fans. People identifying themselves as avid NFL fans outpaced total U.S. spending in skin care by 74% from 2005 to 2007. NFL fans are also more likely to own hi-tech electronic items than the average adult.
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