Last week, we talked about how social media was playing a big role in this year’s Super Bowl. But who’s really the standout in social networking, now that it’s all said and done? Despite the analysis of popularity (Facebook fan page “likes”) and views (YouTube re-watches), Twitter was arguably a winner due to its sheer presence. The 140-character social media site was directly mentioned in half of all Super Bowl commercials (compare that to Facebook’s mere 8% mentions).
Surprisingly, it was also the first place that many companies turned when they wanted to immediately take advantage of the unexpected blackout in the third quarter. One great anecdote is Oreo’s quick five-minute response, which is how long it took to conceive of the tweet “you can still dunk in the dark” and get it into the Twittersphere. This brought even more attention to Oreo’s Super Bowl “Whisper Fight” ad, featuring a debate about cookies that takes place in the sanctuary of a library. Bloomberg also reported that Twitter saw bidding on the search term “power outage” almost immediately.
Also during the game, Budweiser asked fans to tweet using the hashtag #clydesdales to name its newest colt, which served the dual purpose of capitalizing on its long-term brand association with the grand horse while also hooking a new audience who might feel like they can be part of something from the ground up. It dealt an emotional card to viewers who may have otherwise been shell-shocked from sports jokes, slapstick, toilet humor and the ever-popular use of sexuality to sell ads during the Super Bowl.
Hyundai had perhaps the greatest sweep in responsiveness following the event, with 15,000 new Facebook fans and the hashtag #pickyourteam used more than 20,000 times on Twitter as fans responded to its call to action.
Then again, one of the social media tactics didn’t have much to do with Twitter. Audi created a commercial about a teen taking his dad’s S6 to the prom — ostensibly to impress his dates — where viewers could vote to choose the commercials ending on the company’s YouTube page, helping them feel like they had a real and visible connection to the brand’s image. (For the record, they went with stealing the principal’s parking spot and kissing the prom queen, showing that happy endings and emotional pull still do have as much of an impact as machismo and hot models — much like Budweiser’s commercial. Advertising agencies of all sizes, take note!)
And oh yes, in case anyone was wondering bout that little football game that took place: Baltimore Ravens 34, San Francisco 49ers 31.