Temu’s Advertisement Appeares in the Super Bowl, Costing $230,000 Per Second

On February 11th, the 58th edition of the National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl was held in Las Vegas. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers after a thrilling overtime battle that lasted for 75 minutes, becoming the champions and making it the longest game in Super Bowl history.

In addition to Taylor Swift, who just won four Grammy Album of the Year awards, and Travis Kelce, the star tight end for the champion Kansas City Chiefs, having a sweet encounter at the peak, outside of the scene, various businesses are competing for attention with their eye-catching advertisements that cost an average of $7 million for a 30-second spot.

Can Temu’s ambition continue?

This year, traditional consumer products such as Oreo, Pringles potato chips, Lay’s, Doritos and M&Ms chocolate beans dominated the advertising lineup.

In addition, during the Super Bowl, trailers for various films were released, including musical adaptations such as ‘Wicked’, ‘IF’, and ‘Monkey Man’, as well as sequels like ‘Twister 2’, ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’, and ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’.

It is worth mentioning that Pinduoduo‘s cross-border e-commerce platform, Temu, has invested heavily for the second consecutive year to broadcast multiple rounds of advertisements during the Super Bowl and provide millions of dollars’ worth of giveaways, hoping to continue driving its sales growth in the United States.

In a 30-second advertisement, animated characters dance gracefully among discounted products ranging from 99 cents to $9.99. With cheerful background music, Temu once again promises consumers: ‘Shop like a billionaire.’

Temu was launched in the United States in September 2022 and made a splash in the Super Bowl advertisement of 2023. According to market intelligence company Sensor Tower, as of January, the platform has over 50 million monthly active users in the United States, with a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 300%.

Seema Shah, Vice President of Sensor Tower’s research department, stated that the core of Temu’s strategy is to quickly gain market share rather than worry about profit margins. This strategy has been validated by retail giant Amazon. Statistics show that in the fourth quarter of last year, Temu users spent an average of 23 minutes per week on the app, compared to 18 minutes on Amazon and 22 minutes on eBay by consumers.

Shah believes that Temu’s value positioning, gamification of the app, increased advertising expenditure, diverse range of products, and close relationship with suppliers are driving the company’s growth. ‘Considering the scale of its parent company (Pinduoduo), Temu is able to maintain highly competitive prices throughout the year and deliver products quickly. This remains true even during expansion into new regions,’ Shah added.

Google Trends shows that the search volume for Temu experienced a significant increase after the advertisement was aired. However, since early July last year, its search volume has been steadily declining.

Morgan Stanley predicted in a report last month that the stock price of Pinduoduo may experience a ‘modest’ increase this year, and this growth ‘may rely more on obtaining a higher share from existing shoppers’ wallets.’ According to Morgan Stanley’s survey, the number of households shopping on Temu in January this year decreased by 20% compared to September last year.

SEE ALSO: Temu Introduces Semi-Hosted Model for Improved Merchant Operations

Relying more and more on the celebrity effect.

Industry analysis predicts that this year’s Super Bowl will set another historical record in terms of viewership. Preliminary forecast data released by audience monitoring company iSpot on the morning of the 12th shows that the number of viewers for this edition of the Super Bowl reached 126.6 million people. Official statistics from Nielsen will be released later.

With the gradual slowdown of the US economy, companies are cutting expenses one after another. However, they also know that there are few scenarios that can reach more consumers than the ‘Super Bowl.’ ‘Sports is still advertisers’ favorite,’ said Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, during last week’s company earnings conference call.

Whether it’s beer and snacks, or cars and movie trailers, this year’s lineup of advertising clients is more traditional. In 2022, advertisements for cryptocurrency exchanges made a splash during the Super Bowl.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the reliance on celebrity endorsements in Super Bowl advertisements has been continuously increasing. According to iSpot.tv data, last year’s Super Bowl ads featured multiple celebrities in over 40% of the commercials, which is nearly six times more than in 2010.

Brand strategist Allen Adamson stated that the reason why businesses are increasingly relying on celebrities is because of the immense pressure to stand out.

‘Celebrities themselves are very powerful media tools,’ Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a media interview last Wednesday.

This year, Uber Eats’ advertisement features six celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston, David Harbour, the Beckham couple, singer Jelly Roll, and Arthur Fleck. To demonstrate that Uber Eats can deliver almost any product to your doorstep, the celebrities need to forget about other things and make some space in their minds – for example, Rachel forgetting her longtime partner Ross for 10 years.