By Liz Coffin-KarlinThe Daily Northwestern

On Super Bowl Sunday, about 35 Kellogg Graduate School of Management students and a handful of faculty and staff met at the Allen Center for the third consecutive year. But unlike other Super Bowl parties, this group didn’t focus on the Bears and the Colts.

Instead, party-goers paid the most attention to the commercials.

Those who attended held report cards throughout the game. They graded each commercial for its branding, likeability, persuasiveness and ability to grab attention.

The event was sponsored by the Kellogg Marketing Club, a group run by students interested in exploring marketing outside the classroom.

Several Kellogg staff members attended the party, including Prof. Tim Calkins, who teaches courses in marketing strategy and branding.

To receive attention from viewers, an ad must be “interesting enough to break through the clutter,” Calkins said.

“Likeability is incredibly important,” he added.

But just because an ad is funny doesn’t mean it’s effective, students said.

“Our goal is to evaluate whether the ad will have an impact on the business,” said Kellogg student Jay Choi.

Each of about 60 advertisements received a grade from A to F. The 40 companies with ads received an overall grade from the average of the marks from each ad.

Only five advertisers got A’s from the audience, with Sprint ranked as the highest. The next highest was Blockbuster; Budweiser, Snickers and FedEx also received top grades.

The review awarded five B ratings to CareerBuilder.com, Coca-Cola, Emerald Nuts, Taco Bell and Toyota.

There were five advertisers whose commercials received grades of F – Hewlett-Packard, Garmin, IZOD, King Pharmaceuticals, and SalesGenie.com.

Ads are at their most expensive during the Super Bowl, which Calkins called “the biggest advertising event of the year.” Some 30-second ads during the game cost as much as $2.6 million to air, according to CNN.

Any broadcast commercial will automatically get more attention than if it were shown at another time, Calkins said.

“It’s really the only time that people watch a program for the advertising,” he said.

The Super Bowl party allowed Kellogg students to build upon the knowledge they gained during classes, said Kellogg student Greg Yeadon.

He said one of the best parts of being at Kellogg is “the interactive learning experience.”

Although the review is not yet officially an annual event, Calkins said that he thought it would continue, since the Super Bowl is a “wonderful learning opportunity.”

Calkins added, “It’s appropriate that Kellogg would do this, because we’re focusing on (the commercials) as a business-building tool.”

Reach Liz Coffin-Karlin at [email protected].