The Baltimore Ravens just beat the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII in a game that came down to the final seconds. But online, the social network showdown belonged to Twitter in a dominating win over Facebook, Google+ and all other social networks.
According to my count, Twitter was mentioned in 26 of 52 national TV commercials — that’s 50 percent of the spots that aired during CBS’ game coverage. Facebook was mentioned in only four of those commercials — about eight percent. Google+, which is reportedly the No. 2 social network in the world, wasn’t mentioned at all.
YouTube and Instagram were even mentioned once each, by Hyundai and Oreo, respectively.
This is a huge change from last year’s Super Bowl, when Twitter and Facebook both tied with only eight mentions out of a total of 59 counted national commercials.
So, for Twitter, the change from eight mentions to 26 is a gain of more than 300 percent, while Facebook saw a 50 percent drop in mentions.
Google+ was shut out last year, too.
Twitter Super Bowl Commercial Mentions
Here are the commercials that had some mention of Twitter — a hashtag, a logo, a URL or something else:
M&Ms – #betterwithmms
Audi – #braverywins
Hyundai – #pickyourteam
GoDaddy – #thekiss
Doritos – #doritos
Best Buy – #infiniteanswers
Disney Oz – #disneyoz
Fast & Furious movie – #fastandfurious
Toyota – #wishgranted
Doritos – #doritos
Calvin Klein – #calvinklein
Cars.com – #nodrama
Bud Light – #herewego
Hyundai Sonata – #epicplaydate
Volkswagen – #gethappy
Subway – #15yrwinningstreak
Subway – #FebruANY
Bud Light – #herewego
Subway – #FebruANY
Bud Light – #herewego
MiO Fit – #changestuff
Pistachios – #crackinstyle
Speed Stick – #handleit
Budweiser Clydesdales – #clydesdales
Tide – #miraclestain
Samsung – #thenextbigthing
Facebook Super Bowl Commercial Mentions
Here are the Super Bowl commercials that had some kind of Facebook mention:
Fast & Furious movie
Hyundai Sonata
Taco Bell
Mercedes-Benz
How I Counted Super Bowl Commercials & Social Mentions
With so many eyes on how brands market during the Super Bowl, you’re bound to see other mentions of commercial counts and social mentions — those may differ from mine. Here’s how I counted:
I began counting after the opening kickoff of the game.
I stopped counting when the clock reached 0:00 to end the game.
I only counted nationally-sold commercials; those that were sold and aired by the local affiliate stations weren’t included because they’re bound to be different in each market.
I didn’t include the numerous ads that were aired by the NFL and/or by CBS promoting their own properties.
I’m also not counting those brief advertisements where a company logo is shown on screen while the announcer reads the name of game sponsors. In the third quarter, Iron Man’s voiceover mention included a Facebook URL on screen and, in the fourth quarter, a similar voiceover mention for Samsung included a Twitter hashtag. During halftime, Pepsi also included a Twitter hashtag during the introduction to Beyoncé’s performance. None of these mentions are counted above.
What It Means
When it comes to second-screen advertising, it’s Twitter’s world now and there’s no close second place.
Last year, brands split their focus on Twitter and Facebook with eight mentions each. This year, brands recognize that Twitter is where they need to try to attract the online conversation around one of the world’s biggest events.
They even took to Twitter for some quick and clever “blackout bowl” newsjacking when the power went out in the Superdome during the third quarter. And, as Twitter’s advertising staff revealed, it only took four minutes for Twitter advertisers to start bidding on “power outage” as a search term.
Postscript: See our follow-up article, Sorry, Google+ Users, Those Super Bowl Hashtags Really Were For Twitter.
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