Social Media and The Superbowl

Last Week the biggest sporting event in the american calender took place as the Superbowl took place with The Seattle Seahawks playing the Denver Broncos and winning against them in a massive defeat. When it comes to the Superbowl there is no better place for companies to advertise their products. The Ad's shown during the Superbowl are almost as anticipated as the game.  Companies know however, that the buzz you get on social media about your ad's is key

Hashtags were used in 57 percent of nationally-run Super Bowl ads, up from 50% in 2013 and setting a new record. Facebook was the social network most mentioned, though barely. It had only five mentions and just edged past Twitter with four.

The numbers are from our third annual #Hashtag Bowl count of social media mentions during the Super Bowl. We only counted ads shown nationally, and only ads from after the kick-off until the game was over. Promos for Fox, the network that carried the Super Bowl, were not included. Nor was the Pepsi lead-in to the half-time show.

In change from last year, a hashtag also no longer counted the same as a Twitter mention. All the major social networks now support hashtags, including Facebook. However, it still seems likely that hashtag use was especially designed to drive real-time discussion on Twitter. 

The Superbowl ad's are know for being some of the most pricey airtime of the year, millions are spent on a 30 second ad spot. However online, where brands and advertising teams pounced on meme-worthy moments and reacted to each other in real-time, things were lively — and occasionally, heated.

According to Twitter, which has become the real-time advertising hub-of-choice for brands looking to cash in on huge audiences, nearly 60% of commercials included a hashtag to drive the conversation online. It worked. Of the roughly 24.9 million game-related tweets that were sent during the telecast (up from last year’s 24.1 million), a hefty portion of the conversation was by brands or about brands, causing the hashtag #BrandBowl to trend for most of the night.

Some companies took a practical joke approach to social media. When J.C. Penney sent out two jumbled tweets with misspelled words and faulty punctuation, most assumed whoever was in charge of tweeting on the retailer’s behalf was drunk. The messages were retweeted around 20,000 times each. Perhaps sensing a window of opportunity, other brands jumped in: Snickers encouraged the tweeter to eat candy with the company’s tagline, “you’re not you when you’re hungry,” and Coors Light chimed in, “We know football goes great with Coors Light, but please tweet responsibly.” J.C Penny would not be heavily associate with sports and sports fan but the fact that they got people talking even though they are not associate with sports shows how active companies can be during the event and how much of a buzz they can create.  

Coca Cola ad caused a storm online as they had a ad of people singing America is Beautiful in different languages to show Americas diversity but there were racist comments by some users who tried to brand the company Anti American. This was global news and was all over social media and the ad was seen all over the world rather than just in the US.  You can find the ad Here