It’s conventional wisdom that live tempo sporting events are immune from the ad slowdown.

Well, it used to be conventional wisdom.

This year the daddy of them all, the US Superbowl, averaged 112 million TV viewers, a decline from last year. Uh-oh!

Now, its been a habit of brands to recycle the pricey TV spots they run during the Superbowl on digital platforms such as Facebook and Youtube.

Ad agencies have dubbed this the “echo effect”.

Trouble is, all the brands that took that route this year found their ads underperformed.

Meanwhile over at Snapchat, Gatorade was won big.

Their Gatorade “virtual dunk” of Serena Williams got 100m views. That’s a cost per thousand of roughly  $3.50.

In case your wondering, the Superbowl charged £45 per thousand viewers for its ad spots.

I’d say mainstream advertising could well be due a correction.

Posted in: Infographic of the day