This Media Buying Briefing covers the latest in agency news and media buying for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Monday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series →Campaign consistency has been a brand marketing best practice for decades. Changing media economics are turning it into a business necessity.Data from ad measurement firm Extreme Reach (XR) showed that 17.9% of Super Bowl ad campaigns ran for six months or more last year, triple the number that ran for the same amount of time in 2023. It’s a reminder that after years of unbundling, creative and media are married after all — or at least engaged.
The tendency isn’t reserved for Super Bowl work. Chip brand Lay’s is currently running a World Cup ad campaign that began in December and continues until the tournament’s end in July. While the brand might have chosen a briefer run time in the past, that would have been a “missed opportunity”, according to Alexis Porter, vp of marketing for international foods at Lay’s.
Instead, her team chose to “elevate it beyond just ‘surprise and delight’,” to encompass fans’ anticipation of the soccer tournament across eight months.
The X factor
One factor influencing CMOs to keep campaign creative running for longer seems to be their increasing reliance on star power. Almost two-thirds (63%) of this year’s Super Bowl ads featured one or more celebrity talents this year, according to TV measurement company iSpot. The ‘No Lay’s, No Game’ World Cup campaign featured David Beckham, Steve Carrell and Lionel Messi.
