Brands throw boatloads of cash at Super Bowl ad inventory every year. But this past weekend’s game stood out for a few reasons, including, of course, Taylor Swift.
It was the most-viewed Super Bowl in six years, according to viewing data from Samba TV. An average of 50 million US households tuned in throughout the game, a 10.9% increase from last year, based on data from iSpot.tv. In response to a survey conducted by data collection platform Typeform, 10% of participants said Taylor Swift was the biggest draw.
But, Swift aside, brands also capitalized on other mainstream trends, such as highlighting generative AI or dialing up their investment in celebrity and influencer appearances to capture Gen Z’s attention.
Perhaps most noteworthy this year was Chinese ecommerce company Temu commandeering Super Bowl ad inventory with a grand total of six ads from kickoff through the post-game show.
At $7 million a pop for in-game spots, Temu likely spent tens of millions to advertise during the Super Bowl this year, not to mention the additional $15 million in giveaways and coupons it handed out as part of its Super Bowl Sunday campaign.
Temu tailwinds
Temu’s spending spree might seem like money well spent considering that its top priority is to reach as many prospective customers as possible. But overdoing paid ads at the Super Bowl may actually have had the opposite effect.
Rather than diversify its messaging, Temu blasted viewers six times with the same spot featuring a jingle about “shopping like a billionaire.” That repetition may be why 21% of viewers surveyed by research firm Zappi said they “hated” the ad, ranking it a four or less on a 10-point scale. There were also numerous articles over the weekend about the Chinese ecommerce company that went viral with an annoying jingle.
But, hey, at least Temu achieved its goal of going viral.
Social media chatter, including memes poking fun at how many ads it ran, led to news headlines posing the very question that a challenger brand like Temu wants to answer for US consumers: “What is Temu?”
But despite its lofty goal of competing against Amazon for the ecommerce crown with promises of affordable products delivered quickly, Temu so far captured just 1% of the US ecommerce market as of 2023, according to research firm Bernstein. Compare that to Amazon’s 40% market share.
But still, Temu is an example of the power of paid advertising. It spent nearly $3 billion on digital marketing in the US last year – making it one of the biggest online advertisers in the country.
As a result, Temu now has 70 million monthly active users in the US, up from just 13 million a year ago, based on data from SensorTower.
Behind closed doors
That’s the thing, though – Temu is on a hamster wheel. The only reason it’s still able to grow its MAUs and app downloads despite sales dropping off is thanks to its relentless paid media strategy.
The number of US households that made purchases on Temu’s app was 20% lower in January than in September, according to Morgan Stanley. Sales also fell 12.5% between November and December, Bloomberg reports.
Temu is throwing so much money at its growth problem that analysts and consumers alike are questioning where the heck all this marketing spend is even coming from.
Some Twitter (oops, X) users speculated that spending such a shameless amount of money on Super Bowl ads while shipping products at bargain prices is an indicator that Temu’s real priority may be stealthy mass data collection, which would explain why it has a pile of cash lying around.
Meanwhile, many social media posts over the weekend highlighted recent data leaks on Temu, including anecdotes about scams and hacked credit cards, suggesting that the company’s privacy practices leave something to be desired. Others warned people against using the app in the first place.
These publicized concerns about whether Temu is even safe for consumers to use echo those that spurred intense (and ongoing) regulatory scrutiny of TikTok, which ramped up last year.
But sometimes it takes a Super Bowl ad play to bring questionable business practices to the forefront.
Well, you’ve certainly got our attention now, Temu.
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