Dexcom President and CEO Kevin Sayer told CNBC on Friday that the Super Bowl ad had sparked interest in its glucose monitoring system for people with diabetes.
The commercial with musician and actor Nick Jonas, who has diabetes himself, aired Sunday during the NFL championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The game drew 96.4 million viewers, its lowest rating since 2007. But for Dexcom, its first Super Bowl spot proved effective, Sayer told Mad Money host Jim Cramer.
“In terms of media impressions – those who hear the word or name Dexcom – I had five times more impressions in one day than I had all last year,” Sayer said. “As for the indicators that enter our system, as people [got] interested in technology, the biggest lead generation day ever. … The message got very strong there. “
According to a Dexcom press release, the message was to call for “better care for people with diabetes who are still pinching their fingers to measure their glucose levels.” The Dexcom device, called the G6 CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) system, tracks glucose data in real time through a smartphone app, and information can be shared with multiple people.
The Dexcom announcement received some criticism. According to a Healthline article, people have expressed concern that it could stigmatize people who are still monitoring their blood sugar with a finger-pulling device. Others have wondered if it is wise for Dexcom to spend money on a Super Bowl ad – which is known to be expensive – when some people with diabetes go through 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.
Earlier, he shared with CNBC a story about a Dexcom customer who was woken up at midnight by their mother, who saw through the application that the person’s blood sugar had dropped. “When you can do such things and get results like this with a system, you really solve a very serious problem,” Sayer told Cramer in November 2019.
“We really need to raise awareness of this technology and bring it to people, and we really felt the way it was implemented and shown through our spokesperson Nick Jonas, he absolutely talked about it,” Sayer added on Friday.
Jonas, a Grammy nominee, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13 years old.
Dexcom shares closed Friday’s session up 0.6% at $ 412.56. The San Diego company’s shares have risen 68 percent 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 on Thursday, Dexcom said it expects to have revenue of $ 2.21 billion and $ 2.31 billion in 2021.