I'm still recovering from my attempt at 'live blogging' the Super Bowl commercials. One forgets how fast they fly by, and it's weird to time your bathroom breaks so you go during gametime, and keep TV-focused during commercial breaks. Thankfully, plenty of video sites carried - and still carry - all the ads that aired during the most watched Super Bowl ever. Sunday's big game drew some 97.5 million viewers, eclipsed by just one other TV event in terms of audience - 1983's MASH finale (106 million). So the advertisers got what they wanted ... a HUGE audience. Some big winners, and some big flops. So here's the most comprehenseive coverage of the coverage ... what various surveys revealed about the ads:
USA Today Ad Meter: Budweiser's ad featuring a Clydesdale and a dalmatian came out on top of USA Today's survey, making ten Ad Meter wins in a row for the King of Beers. The top five are as follows:
- Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser (Clydesdale and Dalmatian) Rating: 8.73 (out of 10)
- FedEx (Carrier Pigeons) Rating: 8.26
- Bridgestone (Critters scream as car heads toward squirrel) Rating: 8.11
- Doritos (giant rat goes for guy and his Doritos - a consumer generated ad) Rating: 7.94
- Anheuser-Busch/Bud Light (fire breather heats up dinner) Rating: 7.84
The bottom five: GMC Yukon, Paramount's Iron Man promo, Under Armour, White House ONDCP drug ad ... and the least favorite: Doritos music video for online song contest winner.
USA TODAY created the Super Bowl Ad Meter in 1989. This year's Ad Meter was held in Chicago, Illinois and McLean, Virginia. 234 volunteers charted their second-by-second reactions to Super Bowl commercials using hand-held meters to register how much they liked or disliked an ad.
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HCD Research: A national study tapping 2,400 Super Bowl viewers.
- FedEx (Carrier Pigeons) Final score: 80.71
- Anheuser-Busch (Clydesdale/dalmatian 'Rocky') Final score: 80.25
- Coca-Cola (Balloons) Final Score: 78.51
- Diet Pepsi Max (What is Love) Final score: 76.66
- Bridgestone (Squirrel, critters) Final score: 75.87
From HCDs MediaCurves website: The two-phase research consisted of an initial qualitative phase in which a panel of experts viewed each ad during the game. They ranked the top 20 ads using various parameters, including breakthrough, emotion, memorability and involvement. Each commercial was assigned a value based on the mean of the responses for each advertisement. The top 20 ads in phase one were inserted into a web survey and sent to a national representative sample (2400 participants). In this phase, responders answered questions regarding perceptions of the ads, and used an automated response system to indicate level of interest in half-second intervals as they watched commercials.
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Northwestern University: Graduate students at Northwestern received over 50,000 website hits from Fox viewers during real-time polling of Super Bowl ads. Using a technology called MIMIEO, the students polled viewers from multiple channels simultaneously to include Facebook (PickMe application), mobile devices such as the iPhone, and the website VoteSuperBowlAds.com. From the press release:
The students have released the EnMark Survey(TM) which evaluates advertisements on two key dimensions: entertainment value and marketing value. The entertainment score reflects the degree to which viewers like the advertisement. In contrast, the marketing score reflects the extent to which the ad influences viewers' perceptions of the advertised brand.
The survey also reports the vanity score of each ad - the difference between the entertainment and marketing scores. The vanity score reflects an excessive emphasis on creativity at the expense of building a preference for the advertised brand. An ad with a high vanity score is ranked as very entertaining while doing little to strengthen (and sometimes even hurting) the advertised brand. In contrast, a low vanity score indicates that the commercial is likely to strengthen viewers' preferences for the advertised brand even though the commercial itself is not perceived to be very entertaining.
The top Entertaining Ads:
- IRONMAN (Paramount movie promo)
- Pepsi (Bob's House)
- Pepsi (Justin Timberlake)
- Bud Light (Wine and Cheese)
- Diet Pepsi Max
The worst entertaining ads: Sales Genie (Panda), Sales Genie (Plane), CareerBuilder.com (Firefly), and GMC (Yukon).
The top marketing ads (based on ability to influence viewers' perceptions of the brand):
- Coke (Charlie Brown)
- eTrade (Banking Baby)
- Hyundai (Compared to Mercedes)
- Doritos (Mouse Trap)
- Bud Light (Language of Love, X-Ray Vision, Wine & Cheese)
The worst marketing ads: GarminGPS (Napoleon), Sales Genie (Plane), CareerBuilder (Firefly), and Sales Genie (Panda).
Ads which most effectively balanced entertainment and marketing:
- IRONMAN
- Audi (Godfather)
- Diet Pepsi Max
- Pepsi (Bob's House)
- Bud Light (Breathe Fire)
Least effective ads in terms of balancing entertainment and marketing: GMC Yukon, Sales Genie (Plane), Cars.com (Witch Doctor), and Life Water.
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Adbowl: Advertising ranking website for consumers developed by McKee Wallwork Cleveland in partnership with Rassai Interactive. Best ads according to consumers who weighed in at Adbowl.com (on a scale of 1-5):
- Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser (Clydesdale) 4.03
- Bridgestone Tires (Squirrel/scream) 3.79
- Coca-Cola (It's Mine/Balloons) 3.76
- FedEx (carrier pigeons) 3.71
- eTrade (baby/clown) 3.57
From the press release:
“It’s no surprise that the Clydesdale ad performed so well for Budweiser,” said Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland. “It’s as much an American institution as the game itself and people want to like the ad. Budweiser rarely disappoints when the horses are brought out of the stables.”
"What was a surprise this year was how poorly the other Anheuser-Busch spots fared,” said McKee. “They simply got out-played by more imaginative advertisers like FedEx and Bridgestone. Coke’s parade-themed spot, ‘It’s Mine’ was a great return to the big game."
McKee believes that viewership of the game, and therefore the ads, was high due to a lack of competing programming and the opportunity to witness history – either the second undefeated team in history or one of the greatest upsets in history. “This particular game was a touchdown for advertisers,” said McKee. ”The drama, the close score throughout, and the storybook finish all contributed to heightened interest. Second-half advertisers won big.”
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AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll: 6th annual AOL ad poll, with its own sponsor (Verizon).
- Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser (Clydesdale/Rocky)
- Bridgestone (Squirrel)
- Coca-Cola (Balloons)
- Life Water (Thriller, lizards)
- eTrade (baby, the one where he throws up)
Not much in the way of information at the AOL site, like number of consumers who weighed in. They do have a forum taking comments on the ads, and some 1900 comments were posted when I checked.
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So there you have it. I gave the Bud 'Rocky' ad good marks, but I did not think it was the best ad. I'm glad to see others felt the Bridgestone Tires 'Squirrel' ad, the Diet Pepsi Max 'What is Love' ad, the FedEx 'carrie pigeon' ad, and the Coke 'Balloons' ad were top drawyer. I am in agreement. Overall, a great game, and I'd say a pretty good batch of ads.
I had heard of the Pepsi (Bob's House) commercial before the game but did not see it during the game. When did they show it?
Posted by: Kevin | February 05, 2008 at 10:32 AM