The Super Bowl spot for The Mandalorian and Grogu was initially met with confusion and criticism but comments on social media are not always a great point to use. Especially when tens of millions of people saw the ad on TV. Now the hard data is in and things are not looking great for Lucasfilm’s first Star Wars film since 2019.
Spotted by DeppStepp, a new report from EDO, an ads firm Disney work with, has unfortunately revealed how terribly the Jon Favreau-directed spot performed at the big game for a Star Wars big screen commercial. To understand how the spot missed the mark, it is important to learn about EDO’s reporting methodology.
How Is The Data Calculated?
Each year, EDO rank every Super Bowl advert based on how effective it is on consumers. This includes website visits, searches, app downloads and more. These different factors build a Engagement Index (EI)Â score.
According to the company, the EI for each advert is “relative to the median-performing Super Bowl ad, which has a score of 100”. So ads that score above 100 performed above average and ads which scored below 100 performed below average. An example given is if an ad has a Engagement Index score of 342 then the ad had 342% as much engagement as the median spot during that Super Bowl.
How Did Mando Actually Do?
Now we know the ranking system, let’s delve into the Mando specific score. Out of 97 adverts, The Mandalorian and Grogu – A New Journey Begins Big Game Spot is ranked 43rd. It has an EI score of 104. It’s basically average which is never a position Star Wars should find itself in.
Its placement is at the bottom of the list of ads that performed above average. It achieved 6th out of all 8 film adverts. For being part of the near-50 year old pop culture sensation IP that is Star Wars, this is not where it should be. For comparison, Minions & Monsters had a score of 909, The Adventures of Cliff Booth was 569, Disclosure Day hit 475, Scream 7 was 281 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie got 130.
Of course, if this was a traditional, full trailer then it probably would have fared far better. This was more of an artsy one and not the main trailer. However, this film really needs some wins before its release in May to get people in seats. Fans have been complaining about its marketing for some time now and even with a final trailer possibly coming in March or April, ground needs to be made up.
It will be interesting to see where Lucasfilm and Disney go in the coming weeks. We should be seeing another marketing beat take place this weekend. Right now, enthusiasm is not exactly high for this film. As someone who has been longing to see Star Wars back on the big screen and bring joy to people, it feels like I’m watching a slow car crash. Thankfully, Star Wars Starfighter looks to be garnering interest among fans with every word director Shawn Levy says.
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