Celsius All-In On NFL Advertising This Fall

Energy drink brand Celsius has not been a regular advertiser on TV in recent years. But this fall appears to be changing that, as the company has invested significant resources in a campaign with Jacksonville Jaguars' rookie Travis Hunter.

Data from iSpot shows that since the NFL season started, Celsius is among the 50 most-seen brands during live games, and the most-seen sports and energy drink during games by far (over 3x more household TV ad impressions than Red Bull and 4x more than Gatorade so far).

More from iSpot, detailing Celsius's approach around the ad so far:

• Since Sept. 4, 95.8% of Celsius est. national linear TV ad spend has come during NFL games – and 81.0% of Celsius impressions; nearly all Celsius TV ad impressions since the season started have been delivered by sports-related programming.
• iSpot Creative Assessment data shows the ad was similar to non-alcoholic beverage averages over the last 90 days in terms of attention and likeability, while scoring slightly above the norm in terms of brand recognition (73% vs. 67% norm).
• 10% of consumers surveyed saw the characters (primarily Hunter) as the single best thing about the ad, which was just above the industry norm of 9% – however, 24% found the visual scenes to the ad's best aspect, 18% highlighted the product itself and another 12% felt it was the message.

Understanding these sorts of insights around ad performance can be incredibly informative to brands when it comes to creative ideation and talent selection, especially when opting for a celebrity that's not fully established yet (as is the case with Hunter, for now).