Despite this growing female audience, 35 percent of the commercials are still targeted towards male viewers. In fact, during the 2008 Super Bowl telecast, men generally seemed to have enjoyed the commercials more than women.

According to Nielsen, approximately 25 percent of all commercials were “better liked” by men than by women; about 7 percent were “better liked” by women than by men, and the rest were “gender neutral.” Even during the various entertainment awards shows – where advertisers presumably make a concerted effort to to target women viewers – these proportions are about the same.

The most popular commercials among male viewers that aired during the 2008 Super Bowl were Bud Light’s “ability to breathe fire” and cavemen spots, Audi’s “Godfather”-themed spot, Victoria’s Secret, GoDaddy.com, and Tide’s “to go” spot featuring “the talking stain.”

Among female viewers, popular commercials included eTrade’s baby spot, T-Mobile’s spot featuring basketball star Charles Barkley announcing he’s added fellow hoopster Dwayne Wade to his favorite “five” on his mobile phone, and CareerBuilder.com, featuring a woman whose heart pops out of her chest.

At The Tailgate… Pass The Wine?

While football fans are known for their love of beer and chips, Nielsen data suggests that more fans are developing a taste for wine. In fact, avid NFL fans spent 14 percent more on wine in 2007* than in 2006, outpacing the U.S. growth in wine by 14 percent.

Also, spending on skin care products (which includes but is not limited to acne remedies, face cleansers, and hand & body lotions) by the average avid NFL fan increased 19 percent from 2005 to 2007:

• During 2007, head of households who identified themselves as avid NFL fans purchased $36.10 in skin care, an increase of $2.30 from 2006 and $5.70 from 2005. This resulted in total sales in the category reaching 1.3 billion – up 23 percent from 2006.
• Overall, avid NFL fans outpaced total U.S. spending in skin care by 74 percent from 2005 to 2007.

*Latest database available. 2008 information to be released in February 2009

Read Nielsen’s complete pre-Super Bowl report.

But according to an analysis of the most effective holiday retail TV ads, released Tuesday by Nielsen IAG, retailers did not appear to increase the proportion of promotional ads in the mix this year. 

About half of all TV ads so far this holiday season (Nov. 17 – Dec. 14) have been brand-focused, while the other half have been devoted to sales/price-focused messages — as was the case during the 2007 holiday season.

What’s Hot
Instead of promoting sales events and low prices, the most effective TV ads from retailers this holiday season used strong narratives, nostalgia, and family-focused storylines to communicate a brand’s benefits to viewers. 

“Practical” messages for shoppers were also a successful theme.  Take this year’s most liked holiday retail ad — a Wal-Mart spot that shows lights atop all of the cash register lanes flashing on and off, in sync with a well-known holiday song.  The key message is clear: more open register lanes at Wal-Mart make shopping there more convenient.

What’s Not 
What didn’t work this year?  According to Nielsen, seven of the 10 least liked holiday TV ads were 15-seconds spots — an indication that shorter-length ads garnered less appeal, in this case. 

What’s more, the elements that helped enhance appeal levels in the best-liked ads were largely lacking in the less popular spots.  According to Nielsen, among the commercials at the bottom of the pack, promotional messaging generally accounted for a greater share of the creative, leaving proportionally less room for “entertainment value.”

10 Most-Liked Holiday Retail Ads (Nov. 17 – Dec. 14, 2008)

Likeability refers to the percentage of television viewers who report liking an ad “a lot” after viewing it, among those who are able to recall an ad’s brand.

An ad’s “likeability score” is the percentage of television viewers who report liking an ad “a lot” (among those who can recall an ad’s brand) after being exposed to it during the normal course of viewing primetime TV on the broadcast networks.

Likeability scores are indexed against the mean score for all ads during the time period to calculate a “likeability index.”  A likeability index of 100 indicates average recall. A likeability index of 171, for example, means that an ad was 71% better liked than the average new ad during the four-week time period.

Read the full report.