Oscars v. Superbowl - Advertising Smackdown, Pt. 2

In my last post we saw that in terms of nickels and dimes, the Superbowl proved to be a better value for advertisers.  But what about the return for those nickels, dimes?  Which media was more effective? 

I love posing questions that I can't really answer, but still find value in pondering.  Determining effectiveness is kind of like figuring out why we are fat.  Is it the pint of Ben & Jerry's or the bag of Doritos, or the soda we washed it down with?  Or, that we take the elevator, even when we are going down just one or two floors? There are just too many factors to consider, and it is a difficult task to isolate the actual drivers of effectiveness in any given market scenario.

So, lets look at a few things we may be able to draw some definitive knowledge from... Let's start with "recall," a term used to refer to the memorability of an ad, or the degree to which audiences remember our ad.  Recall is one piece to the much larger concept of effectiveness.

Super Bowl ads, as usual, took a humorous approach - with about 80% of the Most-Recalled ads using humor to communicate with audiences:

Oscar ads used humor too, but to a slightly lesser degree.  About 60% of the Most-Recalled ads used humor.

So - humor is a driver of recall.  Maybe, maybe not.  The American Cancer Society ad on the Oscars

and the NFL's "Best Fans Ever" spot on the Super Bowl

both scored high on recall, without hitting our funny bone with a rubber mallet.

Let's use the numbers we have to both clarify and muddy the water in terms of effectiveness.  

First, the recall scores are MUCH HIGHER on Oscar ads than on Super Bowl ads.  Looking at all 20 ads as a whole, Oscar ads would steal the top five spots overall in terms of recall while Super Bowl ads steal the bottom five spots overall.

This still leaves unanswered questions about why we see differences in recall between the two "events." Specifically, the Best Buy ad - which outperformed any Super Bowl ad in terms of recall, BUT ONLY on the Oscars, NOT on the Super Bowl.  The Hyundai ad ('old technology') also ran during both events and scored in the top 10 for Oscar ads, but not for the Super Bowl.  

Perhaps the answer lies in frequency?  The Super Bowl views primed our minds, and then the Oscar airing triggered our memories? Or does the answer lie elsewhere?