People are Skipping NFL Promos, Intrigued by NFL Fantasy, Bud Light

Football, beer and fantasy football have long been a strong combination, and not coincidentally, the same goes for football advertising thus far. A look at the pre-season advertising shows the NFL is investing heavily in hooking fans into its fantasy football leagues.Bud Light has already gotten a jump on football season this summer with NFL preseason games kicking off, and the advertising coming right along with it. Data from iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from more than eight million smart TVs, shows that beer ads get more attention during the Summer months. With Bud Light already heavily invested in football, it would make sense they'd try to capitalize on that along with the captive audience they normally command during NFL broadcasts.Likewise, the NFL is investing its TV inventory capturing the ever attentive fantasy football viewer. People are 50% less likely to interrupt an ad about NFL Fantasy Football offering. Perhaps telling, however, ads for the NFL as a brand are among the most likely (40% more likely) to be interrupted compared to all national ads airing so far this pre-season.Over the last two weeks (which includes the beginning of preseason) more of Bud Light's TV ad impressions -- nearly 29 million -- come from NFL games than any other program, according to iSpot. In that same timeframe, Bud Light is among the top 10 NFL advertisers overall in terms of impressions and is also a top performer in terms of attention score. Tallying a 159 for NFL games over the last two weeks indicates that Bud Light ads received 59% fewer interruptions than the average NFL spot.Looking at NFL audiences so far this Summer, 97.8% are watching live and same day (creating lesser opportunities for skipping commercials). That figure was at 99.2% for all pre-Super Bowl games last season (from opening kickoff through the conference championship games) -- meaning there's a better chance to reach those large audiences than is the case for most programs, since they're probably watching in real-time.Bud Light proceeds to make a football impact away from TV screens as well. Tuesday's big news revolved around the "Victory Fridge" concept -- where the company will be stocking select bars in Cleveland with branded refrigerators of Bud Light that will be locked until the Browns win a game this year. The long-suffering franchise went 0-16 in 2017, and 1-15 the season before. Once the Browns pick up a W, local bar patrons get free beer.https://twitter.com/Browns/status/1029363286037458945The marketing idea has already led to plenty of unpaid coverage (including this very piece), and continues to double down on the brand's captive audience for football-related content. Data from social video intelligence company Tubular Labs shows that of the brand's top-performing social videos this past year measured by V30 (views over the first 30 days of publishing), five of the top 10 were related to football. Of the other five, four premiered during the NFL season and were in heavy rotation during NFL games.When the NFL season kicks off in September, just don't be surprised if Bud Light is everywhere once again (it was eighth in terms of TV impressions during NFL games last year, according to iSpot).After a strong Summer start, some might argue, the brand is front-and-center for football fans.