SOASTA Super Bowl Survey: Finally a Nice Game Now That ‘Obnoxious’ New England Patriots Fans Are Out
In the battle for online performance, Queen Bey is more peasant than
royalty; almost half of Americans say online performance matters during
the Super Bowl and that a poorly performing website or app is worse than
watching their favorite team perform poorly during the Super Bowl
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SOASTA, the leader in performance analytics, today unveiled the results
of its 2016 Super Bowl Second Screen Survey¹, examining online and
mobile habits and preferences of Americans watching this year’s Super
Bowl, as well as their thoughts on which professional football playoff
team has the most obnoxious fans. The research revealed that the New
England Patriots, who were recently eliminated from the NFL playoffs,
are #1 when it comes to obnoxious fans. More than 1 in 3 Americans (38
percent) said that the Pats had the most obnoxious fans in the playoffs.
Americans rated fans of the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers
much more highly.
SOASTA commissioned the Super Bowl Second Screen Study to raise
awareness around the peak traffic and high download rates expected
during the U.S.’s most watched sporting event of the year. According to
the new research, nearly half (48 percent) of Americans say that online
performance during the Super Bowl matters to them, and 46 percent of
Americans say that a poorly performing website or app is worse than
watching their favorite team perform poorly during the Super Bowl. The
online survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA Jan.
20-22, 2016, among 2,046 adults age 18+.
At the same time, SOASTA released new Consumer Performance Index (CPI)
data from a separate study and launched a Digital Performance Management
Platform to help digital businesses meet the growing demand for the
ultimate measure of performance – the customer digital experience –
at big events like the Super Bowl. SOASTA used its CPI to estimate the
performance of popular websites tied to the upcoming Super Bowl,
benchmarking website user engagement against top-performing sites
monitored by SOASTA and condensing it into a single score. According to
SOASTA’s CPI data, Beyoncé has the worst performing website of the three
halftime show performers. Coldplay’s website comes in at #1, with Bruno
Mars taking second place.
Most Obnoxious Fans – and Most Important Ways to Show Loyalty
Americans say the New England Patriots have the most obnoxious fans,
according to SOASTA’s Super Bowl Survey, which asked respondents to rate
fans supporting the four professional football teams vying for the Super
Bowl in the latest playoff series. More than 1 in 3 Americans (38
percent) picked the Pats as having the most obnoxious fans, with only 15
percent choosing the Denver Broncos, coming in a distant second place.
Thirteen percent said the Carolina Panthers have the most obnoxious
fans, with the Arizona Cardinals coming in last place with only 9
percent of the vote.
The new survey illustrated the importance of fans showing their loyalty
to their favorite teams through digital activities. More than 2 in 5 (42
percent) Americans believe that posting support on social media or fan
sites is an important way fans show their loyalty. Other popular ways
fans express loyalty to their teams include watching games on TV, on a
laptop or a mobile device (59 percent); following game scores and player
statistics (47 percent); following players on social media (30 percent);
and trash-talking other teams (17 percent).
Online Performance Just as Important as In-Game Performance
SOASTA’s Super Bowl Survey revealed that Americans are just as demanding
when it comes to online performance as they are of performance on the
field. Nearly half of Americans (48 percent) said that online
performance during the Super Bowl matters to them.
SOASTA’s Super Bowl Study showed that Americans will be using their
smartphones and electronic devices to multi-task while watching the
game. Nearly 1 in 3 (32 percent) of Americans who are planning to watch
the Super Bowl this year said they also plan to use social media on
websites or apps. In addition, 21 percent plan to use sports sites or
apps; 19 percent will use news sites or apps; 17 percent will use food
delivery sites or apps; and 14 percent will use game sites or apps –
suggesting that digital performance will be critical during the Super
Bowl.
In fact, 46 percent of Americans say that a poorly performing website or
app is worse than watching their favorite football team perform poorly
during the Super Bowl. Of those with a favorite football team, that
number jumps to 66 percent. Nearly one-third (32%) of Americans with a
favorite football team say a poorly performing website or app is worse
than watching their favorite football team perform poorly when they are
trying to watch a live stream of the game and it won’t work.
“Winning the game of digital performance has fundamentally changed in this new era of Internet transparency,
extreme velocity, and unforgiving user impatience,” said Ann Sung Ruckstuhl, Chief Marketing Officer of SOASTA.
“With billions of dollars of online economy at stake and competition
just a click away, brands no longer have the luxury of minutes, much
less hours or days, to detect, analyze and correct performance-related
problems such as a slow or unresponsive website. Today’s digital winners
subscribe to a discipline we called Digital Performance Management. They
continuously measure, test and optimize their websites, mobile apps and
the IT infrastructures that support them based on real user experiences
as they occur. For many brands, the Super Bowl is the ultimate test for
digital supremacy.”
Queen Bey: More Peasant than Royalty
Beyoncé may reign supreme on the world’s biggest stage at next month’s
Super Bowl halftime show. But in the battle of online performance, Queen
Bey is more peasant than royalty.
This is according to findings from SOASTA’s new Consumer Performance
Index (CPI) research, revealing that Beyoncé has the worst performing
website of the three halftime show performers. Coldplay’s website comes
in at #1, with Bruno Mars taking second place.
SOASTA’s CPI is a metric that measures how website performance impacts
consumer engagement, evaluating speed and user reaction via bounce rate
to provide a single effectiveness score. Using CPI estimates, SOASTA
determined that among the three Super Bowl halftime performers, Queen B
comes in last place, with a score of 64. Coldplay has the highest score
at 81, and Bruno Mars is second at 76. Among NFL teams who made it to
the playoffs, the Arizona Cardinals are undefeated when it comes to
digital performance, with a CPI score of 82.
Additionally, SOASTA identified the top performing websites popular with
Americans on Super Bowl Sunday. Domino’s tops the pizza company category
when it comes to website performance – scoring higher than Pizza Hut,
Papa John’s and Little Caesars, with a score of 86. DoorDash is the best
performing food delivery website, beating Seamless, Eat24 and GrubHub
with a score of 85. Of the biggest sports gambling sites, FanDuel bests
DraftKings.
| SOASTA Super Bowl CPI Website | Website URL | CPI Rating | ||
| Coldplay |
coldplay.com |
81 | ||
| Bruno Mars | brunomars.com | 76 | ||
| Beyoncé | beyonce.com | 64 | ||
| Arizona Cardinals | azcardinals.com | 82 | ||
| New England Patriots | patriots.com | 78 | ||
| Denver Broncos | denverbroncos.com | 79 | ||
| Carolina Panthers | panthers.com | 81 | ||
| Domino’s | dominos.com | 86 | ||
| Pizza Hut | pizzahut.com | 81 | ||
| Little Caesars |
littlecaesars.com |
77 | ||
| Papa John’s | papajohns.com | 82 | ||
| Seamless | seamless.com | 82 | ||
| Eat24 | eat24.com | 84 | ||
| GrubHub | grubhub.com | 83 | ||
| DoorDash | doordash.com | 85 | ||
| FanDuel | fanduel.com | 82 | ||
| DraftKings | draftkings.com | 80 | ||
Most Memorable Super Bowl Moments: “Bud,” “Weis,” “Er” and
“Nip Slips”
As part of its Super Bowl Study, SOASTA commissioned Harris Poll to ask
Americans about their opinions on the most memorable Super Bowl moments,
including ad campaigns and performances on the field. More than 1 in 3
Americans said that the Budweiser: Bud Frogs (1995) ad campaign and the
Coca-Cola: Polar Bears (2012) ad campaign were the most memorable for
them.
When asked about the most memorable Super Bowl moments, 36 percent of
Americans said that Janet Jackson’s “nip slip” wardrobe malfunction
(2004) was the most memorable moment for them. More than 1 in 4 (28
percent) said it was when Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made the
call to pass the ball instead of giving it to Marshawn Lynch in the
final seconds, losing the game to the Patriots in 2015 (dubbed the
“worst NFL call in history”). Nearly 1 in 4 (23 percent) Americans said
the most memorable Super Bowl moment for them was when Katy Perry rode
an enormous lion and danced with a confused, out-of-step “Left Shark” in
the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show. Finally, 21 percent said it was
Whitney Houston’s rendition of “Star Spangled Banner” in 1991, while 15
percent of Americans said it was Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World”
performance in 1993.
¹ Super Bowl Second Screen Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll
on behalf of SOASTA from Jan. 20-22, 2016, among 2,046
adults ages 18 and older, among which 1,488 plan to watch the Super Bowl
this year, and 1,387 have a favorite football team. This online survey
is not based on a probability sample and, therefore, no estimate of
theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey
methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Gaby
Perez-Silva: gaby@soasta.com
About SOASTA
SOASTA is the leader in performance analytics. The SOASTA platform
enables digital business owners to gain unprecedented and continuous
performance insights into their real user experience on mobile and web
devices in real time and at scale. With more than 100 million tests
performed and more than 200 billion user experiences measured, tested
and optimized, SOASTA is the digital performance expert trusted by
industry-leading brands, including 46 of the Top 100 Internet retailers,
six of the Forbes Top 10 media companies and seven of the Forbes Top 10
tech companies, including Apple, Target, Nordstrom, Staples, Home Depot,
Sears, Walmart, Etsy, Nike, Best Buy, Adobe, Intuit, Microsoft, DIRECTV,
Netflix and CBS. SOASTA is privately held and headquartered in Mountain
View, Calif. For more information about SOASTA, visit http://www.soasta.com.
Contacts
SOASTA, Inc.
Gaby Perez-Silva, 650-390-6700
gaby@soasta.com
