Dexcom’s president and CEO, Kevin Sayer, told CNBC on Friday that the company’s Super Bowl ad had managed to spark interest in its glucose monitoring system for people with diabetes.
The ad featuring musician and actor Nick Jonas, who himself has diabetes, aired Sunday during the NFL’s championship game between Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The game drew 96.4 million viewers, which was the worst score since 2007. But for Dexcom, the first Super Bowl spot ever is effective, Sayer told “Mad Money” presenter Jim Cramer.
“In terms of media impressions – those who hear the word or the name Dexcom – we had five times more media impressions in one day than last year,” Sayer said. ‘As for clues in our system, as people [got] interested in technology, the biggest day of main generation ever. … The message came very strongly there. ‘
According to a press release from Dexcom on the ad, the message was a call for ‘better care for people with diabetes who are still painfully sticking their fingers to measure their glucose levels’. Dexcom’s device, called the G6 CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) system, tracks real-time glucose data through a smartphone app, and the information can be shared with multiple people.
The ad from Dexcom received criticism. According to a Healthline article, people have expressed concern that it could stigmatize individuals who still monitor their blood glucose with a finger prick device. Others have questioned whether it is wise for Dexcom to spend money on a Super Bowl ad – which is known to be expensive – when some people with diabetes skip treatment because they cannot pay for it.
Sayer said Dexcom wants to leverage all the interests associated with the Super Bowl to make sure people know about continuous glucose monitoring.
He had earlier shared a story with CNBC about a Dexcom customer who was woken up in the middle of the night by their mother, who saw through the app that the person’s blood sugar was low. “If you can do such things and deliver such results with a system, you’re really solving a very serious problem,” Sayer told Cramer in November 2019.
“We need to be really aware of this technology and get it from people, and we really felt like it was deployed and shown by our spokesman Nick Jonas, absolutely spoke to it,” Sayer added Friday.
Jonas, a Grammy-nominated musician, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 13.
Shares of Dexcom rose 0.6% Friday to $ 412.56. The company in San Diego has risen 68% over the past 12 months.
In 2020, Dexcom’s revenue grew 31% year-on-year to $ 1.93 billion. In the fourth quarter and the annual results announced on Thursday, Dexcom said it expects 2021 revenue to be between $ 2.21 billion and $ 2.31 billion.