At a Glance:

• The 2020 NFL Draft shattered ratings records and was an unqualified success for viewers, brands, and the airing networks – all starved for live sports content
• Amidst an altered TV advertising landscape, viewers were exposed to a different mix of brands compared to the 2019 event – across the three airing networks, only 61 of 150 advertisers also had spots in last year’s event
• Ads from travel & leisure, automotive, media & entertainment, and retail advertisers decreased most significantly year-over-year; ads from quick service restaurants, insurers, tech companies, and streaming video platforms increased the most
• Coronavirus-related messages made up more than one-third of all ad spots across networks, almost twice as frequent as the 19 percent of all national TV airings focused on similar messages
• AI-powered measurement of brand exposure in content highlighted the long tail of college football sponsorship values. ESPN’s presenting sponsor, Lowe’s, achieved the most equivalent media value from logo exposure within the programming; however, Nike was next most with swooshes visible in highlights, and four other on-field apparel brands ranked in the top 15 of brands with in-content exposure

With reported year-over-year viewership gains of roughly forty percent, the 2020 NFL Draft was an unqualified success for viewers, brands, and the airing networks – all starved for live sports content as the COVID-19 disruption persists.

For those who watched in 2019, this year’s event looked different. Notably, more than 600 camera feeds enabled a “virtual draft” format featuring teams, players, and commentators connecting from their homes. Beyond the altered format, viewers were also exposed to a much different set of brands.

Of the 150 advertisers who ran spots across ESPN, ABC, and NFL Network during this year’s event, only 61 also advertised in the 2019 NFL Draft (see Figure 1). This overlapping group was led by brands including Verizon, Lowe’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and State Farm.

Several major automakers including GMC, Nissan, and Honda were among the 96 brands sitting out this year’s draft after being active in the 2019 event. Filling the gaps were 89 brands not active in last year’s event, with IBM, BMW, John Deere, and DoorDash among the new-to-Draft brands with heavy presence.

The carousel of brands impacted category-level share of voice as well. Last year, ads from travel & leisure, automotive, media & entertainment, and retail advertisers made up 43 percent of airings across ESPN, ABC, and NFL Network; this year, that number decreased to 27 percent (see Figure 2). Growing share of voice year-over-year were quick service restaurants, insurers, tech companies, and streaming video platforms.

Over the past month, Hive and Bain Media Lab have monitored the continued increase in TV ad campaigns related to COVID-19, tracking the flighting and messaging of the more than 160 brands who have released bespoke campaigns. Across the TV universe, these campaigns made up 19 percent of all airings during the past week. This concentration was significantly higher during the NFL Draft, with 35 percent of all spots featuring coronavirus-related campaigns (see Figure 3). This peaked at 41 percent of national TV ad airings on the NFL Network feeds, 34 percent on ABC, and 29 percent on ESPN.

A host of league and broadcast sponsors achieved additional exposure in-content with logo presence in the telecast. In total across the three days, 33 brands received 15 or more seconds of in-content logo exposure, excluding league, team, and network logos (see Figure 4). This analysis was completed using Hive’s logo model, using a computer vision model trained with more than two million manhours of human-labeled training data and able to automatically detect and value the presence of logos from more than 5,000 brands.

Visible brands included Lowe’s as the presenting sponsor and other broadcast sponsors scattered into the broadcasts (e.g. “Autotrader Trade Alerts”). League sponsors including Microsoft and Gatorade had visible product placement in the telecast, as did Bose which monopolized the headphones and earphones used by players and teams during the event (albeit without camera-visible branding).

Interestingly, many of the top brands visible within the 2020 NFL Draft programming earned their exposure primarily through highlight footage from past events. This included Nike, which had the second-most total exposure, as well as four other on-field apparel brands which ranked among the top 15. College bowl sponsors including Chick-Fil-A and Allstate also made the list, making the case for always-on measurement of sponsorship exposures. While the NFL Draft is one example of this, separate research from Hive has found that shoulder programming and highlights consistently amplify valuations for sports sponsorships – sometimes by as much as twice the value of whistle-to-whistle measurement.

With the intrigue of draft selections passed, the key question in the sports world now returns to when and how games will resume. If this weekend was any indication, changes to the format shouldn’t have any negative impact on the demand from viewers or brands.

Note: Published Bain Media Lab research relies solely on third-party data sources and is independent of any data or input from clients of Bain & Company