Dexcom’s Super Bowl Ad With Nick Jonas Sparked Record Interest In Its Glucose Monitor, CEO Says
Dexcom President and CEO Kevin Sayer told CNBC Friday the company’s Super Bowl commercial was successful in sparking interest in its glucose monitoring system for people who have diabetes.
The advertisement featuring musician and actor Nick Jonas, who has diabetes himself, aired Sunday during the NFL’s championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The game drew 96.4 million viewers, its worst rating since 2007. But for Dexcom, its first-ever Super Bowl spothas proven effective, Sayer told “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer.
“As far as media impressions — those who hear the word or the name Dexcom — we had five times more media impressions in one day than we had all last year,” Sayer said. “As far as leads coming into our system, as people [got] interested in the technology, biggest day of lead generation ever. … The message got out there very strongly.”
That message, according to a Dexcom press release about the ad, was to call for “better care for people with diabetes who are still painfully pricking their fingers to measure their glucose levels.” Dexcom’s device, called the G6 CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) System, tracks glucose data in real-time through a smartphone app, and the information can be shared with multiple people.
Dexcom’s ad has received some criticism. According to a Healthline article, people raised concerns that it could stigmatize individuals who still monitor their blood glucose with a finger-pricking device. Others questioned whether it was wise for Dexcom to spend money on a Super Bowl commercial — which are known to be costly — when some people with diabetes skip treatment because they are unable to pay for it.
Sayer said Dexcom wanted to take advantage of all the interest associated with the Super Bowl to make sure people know about continuous glucose monitoring.
He previously shared with CNBC a storyabout a Dexcom customer being woken up in the middle of the night by their mom, who saw through the app that the person’s blood sugar had fallen low. “When you can do things like that, and deliver results like that with a system, you’re really solving a very serious problem,” Sayer told Cramer in November 2019.
“We really need to drive awareness of this technology and get it to people and we really felt the way it was deployed and shown through Nick Jonas, our spokesperson, absolutely spoke to that,” Sayer added Friday.
Jonas, a Grammy-nominated musician, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 13 years old.
Shares of Dexcom closed Friday’s session up 0.6% at $412.56. The San Diego-based company’s stock is up 68% in the past 12 months.
In 2020, Dexcom’s revenue grew 31% year over year to $1.93 billion. In its fourth-quarter and full-year results released Thursday, Dexcom said it expects to see 2021 revenues between $2.21 and 2.31 billion.
-CNBC