On one of the biggest shopping days of the year, a new analysis from EDO finds that the inaugural Black Friday NFL game on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service is set to be a smash hit for advertisers.
Based on Thanksgiving NFL viewership projections and historical NFL ad engagement, the EDO analysis reported that “we estimate that the average ad during the game will deliver over $1.3 million in media value for participating brands.”
EDO defines engagement as the lift in consumer intent behaviors, such as searching for a brand online, in the minutes after an ad airs. These engagement behaviors indicate that a consumer has moved from merely being aware of a brand to actively considering a purchase — and research has consistently linked these behaviors to increased sales and market share, the company said.
Given that even the most expensive regular-season sports ads cost significantly less than $1 million, it’s likely that advertisers will reap a powerful return on investment from the Black Friday contest between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, EDO reported.
The strength of the ads builds on “the overwhelming popularity of the NFL, the highly engaged audiences we’ve seen during holiday sports programming, and a streaming environment that makes consumers more likely to engage with the brands they see,” the analysis found.
EDO also noted that its research has found that “holiday sports events are highly effective at generating consumer engagement” and that the games are “far from serving as background noise at family gatherings…Last year, consumers were 12% more likely to engage with brands advertised during live sports on Black Friday than the rest of the day’s programming on a per-person, per-second basis — and 32% more likely to engage with these Black Friday matchups than the rest of last winter’s programming through December.
EDO also reported that “retail brands that advertised during Thanksgiving week NFL games last year saw a whopping 314% increase in total TV-driven engagements from their NFL advertising the previous week.”
“The streaming environment on Amazon’s Prime Video further amplifies impact for brands,” the company reported. “Because changing apps on TV takes more time and intent than changing channels, consumers are more likely to watch and engage with ads. During the 2022-23 NFL season — Amazon’s first year airing Thursday Night Football — NFL games on Prime Video were 116% more effective at driving consumer engagement than the primetime average.”
