Long after this year’s Super Bowl victory parties were over, pundits and the public continued to argue about what was the “best” Super Bowl ad. Polls for the best ad proliferated, with voters typically picking the most heart-warming ads.
But what do the metrics show as the most effective ad? Sentimentally uplifting does not necessarily equal effective. For instance, viewers criticized Nationwide’s child safety ad, featuring a dead child, as depressing. Yet the ad performed well in terms of social media engagement. Even with the negative sentiment, the ad’s key message seemed to get through: protect your children.
Many experts, who backed up their opinions with numbers, picked Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” commercial as this year’s best Super Bowl ad.
TiVo said Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” commercial, a sequel to last year’s mega-popular “Puppy Love,” was the most engaging Super Bowl ad among its viewers, Times reported. The ad caused the largest spike among TiVo viewers.
The ad was the most-shared spot online, with more than 2.1 million posts on Twitter, Facebook and blogs since it debuted last Wednesday, according to video ad tech company Unruly.
Viewers on Hulu’s AdZone also selected the Budweiser “Lost Dog” ad as the best Super Bowl commercial.
The Social Media Super Bowl
Savvy advertisers are becoming more aggressive and creative in amplifying their reach through social media.
When a power outage struck the stadium in a recent Super Bowl game, Oreo quickly took advantage of the situation with tweet, with a photo of an Oreo, stating: “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.”
Retweeted 15,643 times, the tweet became a social media marketing standard.
“There’s a competitiveness to have that social-listening campaign and create that piece of ‘Oreo’ content that everyone starts talking about,” Michelle Barna-Stern, director of social media communications for marketing agency Deep Focus, told CNET. “Trying to shift that conversation, at least for a moment, from the Super Bowl to your brand is everyone’s hope.”
Marketers began taking a keen interest in social media when the NFL created its first social media command center to monitor tweets and posts during the game, Barna-Stern said. Chances are, social media will become even more important for Super Bowl marketers next year.
For $4.5 million, a Super Bowl ad gets 100 million television viewers. Yet Facebook has 1.25 billion users, as Howard University marketing professor Angela Hausman, PhD, points out. That, she says, raises the question of why advertisers don’t drop their Super Bowl ad and spend $4.5 million on promoted posts on Facebook.
Bottom Line: Brands have become more aggressive and creative in marketing Super Bowl ads through social media. To find the most effective Super Bowl ad, analyze social media metrics, such as total reach, engagement and web traffic.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
