A group of Middle Tennessee State University students found themselves weighing in in a significant way with their opinions of the always highly anticipated Super Bowl commercials, thanks to a collaboration between one of the nation’s largest media outlets and a Jones College of Business marketing class.

Almost 100 students in the Principles of Marketing class (MKT 3820) and Retailing (MKT 3830) taught by Gaia Rancati, assistant professor of marketing and neuromarketing, participated in the inaugural USA Today-Ad Meter college/university spotlight program to capture the impressions of college-aged students of the multimillion-dollar advertisements rolled out before and during the telecast of Super Bowl 58.

Collegiate marketing and advertising students from five universities evaluated and rated the national commercials on the Ad Meter platform, while also making notes of what they liked, didn’t like, weighing in on what worked, and what missed. The students then selected their top 5 and bottom 5 commercials and those results were published in an article with post-Super Bowl coverage.

In an online story revealing the MTSU students’ choices, Rick Suter, senior content strategist for the Gannett-USA Today Network, said his company launched the program to college and university campuses “to expand the Super Bowl commercial conversation to the next generation.”

Suter joined Rancati’s class via teleconference recently to hear their feedback about the ads they viewed as well as their overall Ad Meter experience. Multiple students expressed frustration that some of the ads seemed to have little to do with the product they were promoting while others applauded the creativity and impact of others.

“It’s exactly what I had hoped for, although I didn’t know if it would happen or not as far as getting the great feedback,” Suter said at the end of the hourlong-plus discussion inside the Business and Aerospace Building classroom.

Rancati said she was pleased with the level of engagement from such a large class, with all the students submitting their feedback on time as a part of the effort. She added that she and four or five of her students were texting back and forth in real time as they evaluated the ads during the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

“I really think it gives them the experience of ‘touching’ what is really marketing, you know? Because Principles of Marketing is when you teach them the basics, and sometimes you have to tell them things, and they’re going to say, ‘Yes, but what am I going to do with this during life?’” Rancati said. “And here they understood that advertising is not some kind of external war that somehow happens in the TV, and who cares? They understood that they are part it, and this is something that I really liked about that.”

Jason Fanning, a junior business administration major from Lynchburg, Tennessee, said he enjoyed delving more deeply into marketing concepts.

“Since my major is so broad, I’m actually really loving this class. I actually took this class because I wanted to figure out what marketing is like, and I’m actually enjoying this class, which is probably one of the best knowledge classes you can get from here … where you take what you learn, you take it to the real world.”

‘Ads weren’t as attention grabbing’

Among ads that consistently received positive feedback were the State Farm “Like a Good Neighbaaa” and Doritos Dinamita “Dina & Mita” spots while the He Gets Us “Foot Washing,” Snapchat’s “Less Social Media. More Snapchat,” and the Robert Kennedy Jr. spots weren’t well received.

“My least favorite was the Kennedy campaign one,” said Alexa Coronado, a junior business administration major from Franklin, Tennessee. “It just seemed like really out of place, especially with all the other ads being major celebrities and really top productions, and the Kennedy campaign was like 60s imagery and really old-fashioned looking. It just seemed so weird.”

Fanning said the Ad Meter process “was super fun,” however he was underwhelmed by the overall quality of this year’s selection of commercials, with too many such as the Homes.com “Mascot” spot not really tying in logically with the product being promoted.

“I got to experience some new products that came out, there were a couple of new ones,” he said. “The only problem I had with the Super Bowl this year was the ads weren’t as attention grabbing. Most people were getting up and going to get food or drinks and enjoying their time.”

Luke Bucci, a junior construction management major from Chicago, said the Ad Meter process “was fun,” especially getting access to view some ads before the game. He feels the experience can help him in approaching marketing within his chosen profession as he looks to get into general contracting work when he graduates,

“With marketing and construction, you can market different jobs, different aspects of jobs,” said Bucci, who has Bucci, who’s been interning at Clark Construction Co. for the past 18 months. “If you’re bidding for jobs, you can market your company in a certain way as compared to other companies as a general contractor, which is what I want to do. Getting to learn the (general contractor) side of construction, you can really market yourself as well as an employee and an essential employee in the company.”

Sophomore accounting major Beatrice Suggs from Readyville, Tennessee, enjoyed the process as well as it caused her to think about marketing more conceptually.

“It is definitely interesting because as I looked at who the ads were targeted for, I was thinking more abstractly about what the company was focusing on, the demographic,” she said. “Like the Skechers ad with Mr. T from the A-Team, you know, that’s kind of more targeted toward the older audience. And then the Paramount +, it’s kind of targeted toward everyone.”

While her current interest is to move into a public accounting role “to help people at a more personal level,” Suggs said she could see how the Ad Meter process would be relevant to a corporate accountant considering the hefty $7 million per ad price tag for a Super Bowl ad. 

“That’s a big, big deal with the Super Bowl. Yeah, it’s definitely made me think.”

Though his 49ers eventually fell to the back-to-back winner Chiefs in an overtime thriller, Fanning looks forward to using his marketing knowledge he’s gaining as he develops his career.

“I just got promotion at FedEx, so I’m an admin there now. So my goal there is to become a manager and then a senior manager and bring happiness and more kindness to people at work. People need to be happy.”

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)