Super Bowl Ads that May Affect Your Portfolio

Sure, the Super Bowl is the marquis sporting event of the year, but it may have an effect on your portfolio too. It’s all about the commercials.

A study by University at Buffalo School of Management and Cornell Universityfound that when a company produced an ad that the public liked, its stock price rose in the days after the Super Bowl. Seem a little irrational? Sure, but anything that produces a little volatility may work as a short-term trade.

Times have changed. Companies are now using ads to promote their ads. Sneak peeks of the 2013 Super Bowl commercials are already online. Here are the companies that are generating the most buzz.

Mercedes-Benz’s DDAIF parent company Daimler AG produced a commercial depicting supermodel Kate Upton “washing” a Mercedes. Although the ad uses the “sex sells” strategy, it is creating media controversy as being too sexy for mainstream TV while others argue that Upton wears more than she usually does and never actually washes the car. Still, it’s generating debate and media exposure and that’s good for Daimler.

Coca-Cola, KO known as a staple, low beta, respectable dividend stock, has spent more than $67 million on Super Bowl ads over the last nine years. (Remember the polar bears?) This year the company produced a social media campaignthat leads up to the game day commercial. Will it lead to a pop in a stock that is already up 10 percent in the past year?

Toyota TM is taking the “if you want an ad that sells, get a good looking pop culture actress” approach. Kaley Cuoco, star of the top rated sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, stars in a commercial where she grants wishes to people around her.

CNN Money reports that a Super Bowl ad will set a company back $4 million this year. Toyota is “wishing” its ad would push a stock already up 30 percent in the past 52 weeks even higher.

Skechers SKX takes the Coca-Cola approach by setting up a social media tease leading to its Super Bowl ad on February 3. The video starts with a cheetah chasing a gazelle. A runner wearing, of course, a pair of Skechers running shoes, takes after the two animals. “What will happen next?” Hopefully the stock heads to the upside continuing its 46 percent gain over the past year.

Other companies to watch for include Anheuser-Busch BUD, Best Buy BBY, and E*TRADE ETFC.