Following the Super Bowl there were a number of “was it worth it?” analyses that came out. They all used different metrics, such as “mentions,” “buzz,” “shares,” “likes” and “views,” to evaluate the different commercials. None of those are particularly concrete.
By contrast, appfigures sought to evaluate the performance (downloads) of the commercials tied to the three mobile games that bought airtime. The three games that advertised during the big game were: Game of War, Clash of Clans and Heroes Charge.
According to appfigures all three games saw increased iOS downloads during or following the Super Bowl:
Game of War got the most downloads of the three in this category for iOS, even succeeding in pushing Clash of Clans down a few slots. However, Clash of Clans must have received a similar number of downloads, as it managed to bounce back. Finally, Heroes Charge made a brief climb, peaking at 86th in the Games category, which shows some success, even though it was not sticky, that it had previously been unable to achieve.
The company said that on Google Play neither Clash of Clans nor Game of War saw much movement. Heroes Charge, the “least successful” of the three on iOS, “was able to break into the top charts, both in the Games category and Overall.”
We can say then that the $4.5 million ads did generate awareness. And more importantly they apparently generated downloads. Retention is another story, but that’s not the ad’s job.
Beyond this, the issue of whether Super Bowl advertising was the most efficient way to drive the same number of downloads is another discussion. An analysis by Rocket Fuel argued that for less than the cost of a single 30-second Super Bowl ad, one of these companies could have bought every single impression available on digital ad exchanges (roughly 2,542,573,344) during the entire Super Bowl.
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