Lessons from the “Social Super Bowl”
Last Super Bowl Sunday, Mario Manningham wasn’t the only one make a key catch, Gisele wasn’t the only one to air a few grievances, and Wes Welker wasn’t the only one who dropped the ball.
I’m talking, of course, about the “Social Super Bowl” – a look at which major advertisers earned the most social engagement in the days before, during and after the big game. We temporarily aimed the proprietary tools and analysis of Media Logic’s Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI) at more than a dozen top consumer brands to see who would take home the trophy.
Among our observations:
Car Companies Roared Ahead
Chevy, Toyota, Acura and Honda raced to the front of the pack – with Chevy narrowly being edged for the top spot by perennial Super Bowl champ Budweiser (more on the brewmeister’s somewhat hollow victory in a moment). I personally enjoyed Chevy’s dystopian spot for both its production value and its Ford-thwacking payoff.
“Been There, Done That” Didn’t Work
Coca-cola and E-Trade may as well have been sitting the bench for this one because both ended up on the bottom of our charts. This can likely be attributed to them trotting out familiar characters – Coke’s polar bears and the E-Trade baby – which may no longer be worth buzzing about.
Pre-Buzz Didn’t Equal Game Day Success
This year, more marketers than ever started previewing their Super Bowl spots in the week leading up to the event. Was it worth it? Not really, according to the Index results. While Honda earned strong preliminary interest with its Ferris Bueller teaser (which had no Honda mentions at all), the brand’s social engagement seemed to fizzle by Sunday and Monday.
Bud Wins, And Disappoints
Combining social engagement results for Bud Light and Budweiser (which no doubt provided an edge in the overall results, but that’s how they market), the RSJI crowned Bud the King. A more detailed look at its engagement during Super Sunday revealed that the brewer owes a lot to Wego, the rescue dog star of a Bud Light spot. The company earned major kudos from Likers and followers for employing an actual rescue dog – shining a light on a cause near and dear to many people.
The win would ultimately prove bittersweet, however. Scan through Bud’s social engagement channels and you’ll find dozens of complaints from fans who were disappointed by the lack of a classic “Budweiser moment” during the Super Bowl. How about a new Clydesdale spot?! I miss the frogs! Bring back the Bud Bowl. And so on. (Someone even lamented for the Wassup guys.) Bud was, in effect, unable to live up to its previous successes. This could prove to be a valuable lesson for next year.
All in all, it was a great game, there were some fun spots, and social engagement provided an excellent new way to measure marketing success. So how long until the NFL draft?
