Can You Measure the ROI of a Super Bowl Ad?

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the real economics of brand marketing—from Super Bowl ads and CPM math to attribution, incrementality, and PLG arbitrage. They debate when brand spend actually drives growth, why CFOs struggle to measure it, and how B2B companies justify big bets. The episode wraps with Pricing in the Real World, breaking down Rivian’s lower-priced R2 launch, EV subsidies, and pricing strategy under uncertainty.—SPONSORS:HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.comRightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.comTropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.—LINKS: Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.comCJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/https://skift.com/2019/01/31/what-is-expensify-thinking-with-its-pricey-super-bowl-ad/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Tgsy7D0Jghttps://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-commercial-prices-hit-8-million-first-time/2600146/https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/guide-to-marketing-attributionhttps://www.growthunhinged.com/p/brand-vs-growthhttps://www.themotherhood.com/super-bowl-advertising-guidelines/https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gw30je/til_that_the_nfl_sent_a_cease_and_desist_order_to/https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/teslas-full-self-driving-is-switching-to-a-subscription-only-service-120053137.htmlhttps://www.caranddriver.com/rivian/r3—RELATED EPISODES:Scaling to $1B+ Revenue: From ServiceNow to Samsara | Dominic Phillipshttps://youtu.be/vBY6WZBMljwThe Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberghttps://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo—TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Preview and Intro00:01:11 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic00:05:15 Super Bowl Ads, QR Codes, and CFO Risk Assessment00:08:37 Super Bowl Ads as Ego vs. Economic Signal00:11:21 Bottom-Up PLG and the Expensify Playbook00:12:56 Which B2B Companies Can Justify a Super Bowl Ad00:14:44 CPM Math and Why the Numbers Sometimes Work00:16:28 Brand vs. Demand and Measuring Brand as Growth00:18:49 Brand as a Moat and Trust Over Time00:21:10 Measuring Brand Through Branded Search and Conversion00:23:22 Attribution Limits and Incrementality Testing00:26:12 Geo-Based Brand Experiments and Targeted Events00:28:13 Marketing Arbitrage and Analytics Discipline00:29:06 Unconventional B2B Marketing That Actually Worked00:30:33 Predicting Which Tech Companies Will Run Super Bowl Ads00:32:31 Subscription Pricing Comes to Cars00:34:18 EV Pricing, Subsidies, and Forecasting Demand00:34:48 Credits#MostlyGrowthPodcast #brandmarketing #b2bmarketing #pricingstrategy #superbowl