The Profitero Blog

eCommerce brand strategies to win the Super Bowl | Profitero

Written by Becky Carruthers | Feb 6, 2024 3:46:20 PM

Over 100 million Americans tune in to the Super Bowl, and they spend a lot – $16.5 billion in 2023 alone. And with the addition of Taylor Swift already driving huge increases in viewership, it’s safe to say spending will rise this year. No other tentpole event is so heavily focused on brand identity, making this a unique opportunity for brands to shape their perception among consumers. 

Like the Super Bowl, winning eComm tentpole events is all about preparation and agility. Why? Because the digital shelf never stands still – especially during the Super Bowl. Here’s what Amazon’s search results for “chips” looked like during the game last year:

 

When it comes to developing winning plays supported by automation, actionable data and predictive insights, we’re a trusted partner with a track record of positioning brands for success. Here are 4 tips we recommend to customers as they finalize their preparations for the Super Bowl. 

 

#1 - Optimize your PDP content for compliance AND conversion

 

For tentpole events in particular, brands need an accurate view of whether their listings are compliant, and therefore visible to shoppers, when it matters. Finding out a week later that your hero image disappeared on the big day doesn’t do much good. Product content changes on retailer sites day by day, as the chart below shows: 

Through our content module, you can view and export daily data on all your PDP content across 1200+ retailers, and set alerts to receive notifications when your content unexpectedly changes and falls out of compliance with the retailer’s requirements (as well as your brand’s own content benchmarks). 

Content should also be optimized to drive conversion – but which content levers really drive sales? There’s plenty of research on converting shoppers on Amazon through enhanced content, but we’ve leveraged our predictive data science tools to reveal what types of content drive sales at other retailers, too – see our Walmart and Target reports. For a higher-level view on creating effective content that converts shoppers, check out our recent, in-depth report in partnership with the Digital Shelf Institute.

 

#2 - Perfect your organic search strategies

 

If your products aren’t landing on page 1 – or better yet, in the top 5 spots – you’ll miss out on the increase in traffic and sales from the Super Bowl. With our daily placement data you can monitor which products are underperforming in organic search and test the uplift of different content tweaks and review strategies. And by using Profitero’s ratings & reviews data to analyze customer sentiment, you can rapidly identify any ongoing problems with fulfillment or the product experience. 

To learn more about the sales impact of improving search placement, check out our deep dive on the impact of winning search. And remember that search best practices aren’t one size fits all, so have a look at our Page 1 intelligence reports to see what content changes make the biggest difference by category, region and retailer. 

 

#3 - Defend against competitor conquesting: nail the basics & use selective media buying

 

Not surprisingly, Super Bowl shopping drives an increase in out of stocks for a variety of popular Food & Bev items:

 

 

 

Every day counts, so brands will want to set up daily availability alerts. And with Profitero, you’ll know not just when your products go OOS, but when your competitors’ products do as well. 

Monitoring competitor out-of-stocks is crucial because it allows you to target competitors through paid search & media campaigns at the exact moment when their typical buyers are most likely to switch to your brand – after all, Super Bowl party shopping can’t wait. 

Profitero can automate this entire conquesting process: our Shelf Intelligent Media integration with Skai and Pacvue connects Profitero availability data to media bidding to automate campaigns based on competitor availability. The results speak for themselves: Philadelphia Cream Cheese won 28% more new to brand buyers at Walmart using Shelf Intelligent Media.

 

 

Speaking of Walmart, brands that leverage competitor availability-based conquesting have a significant advantage this year: Walmart just introduced paid search conquesting last month, and agile first movers can conquest competitors that haven’t adapted to this shift in the retail media landscape.

 

An example of Walmart's new search conquesting feature

 

#4 Product & variant launches are a lot to handle: we help prevent fumbles

 

Consumers look forward to their favorite brands’ new product launches in the buildup to the Super Bowl – making it the perfect time to launch a new product, flavor or variation. But the product launch process is anything but simple, particularly on Amazon. 

To make sure new products & variants launch smoothly, use Profitero Autopilot, which launches and monitors new items and variants on Amazon, monitors and fixes syndication errors, and corrects discrepancies between your content source of truth and PDPs. With Autopilot, NAOS reduced their product launch time from months to days – among many other benefits:

 

 

We're offering a free audit with Profitero Autopilot for any brand interested in seeing how much they're losing from unresolved Amazon tickets. To find out how much revenue your brand could recover with Autopilot, request an audit here. 

The quarterback that calls your winning play

 

At Profitero, we understand that resources are limited and brands often can’t optimize every variable, every day. That’s why you need a trusted partner that gives an accurate view of the market – the quarterback’s vantage point that synthesizes all the data, calls the right play, and takes the next best action to help your brand win on the digital shelf. Get in touch with us today.