The Game Within the Game: How Social Media Rocked Super Bowl XLVI

Brandie Broihier | @Brandienic  Now that the wings have been eaten (all 1.3 million of them), the touchdowns scored, and the tweets sent, it's time for the analysis of the Social Media Super Bowl to begin.  The buzz surrounding this year's Super Bowl started early and strong, and set several new Social Media records to boot.

  • Bluefin’s data shows that the Super Bowl generated 12.2 million social media comments, up 600% from 2011?s 1.8 million comments.

The results of this year's #brandbowl are in: Doritos scored with its “Crash the Super Bowl” consumer generated commercials contest. Chevrolet ruled the automotive category for advertisements, ranking high on the lists for positive tweets (indicating customer enjoyment of emerging media techniques).

Brands have become creative at engaging consumers in their marketing strategies.  Big names like Doritos and Chevrolet hosted fan-made commercial contests and saw great success as a result of their efforts.

Every year around Super Bowl time, an amazing thing happens.  People start anticipating big brand advertising.  It is not uncommon to hear that many people watch the game mostly for the commercials.

This year, Social Media platforms classified the relevant game buzz to bring us the truth: most interaction with Social Media isn't about the game.  In fact, according to Networked Insights, which analyzed millions of tweets:

  • 42% of the conversation was about the commercials and 32% was related to Madonna and the halftime performance.
  • Super Bowl ads or ad teasers were watched more than 30 million times on YouTube before the big weekend this year, adding to the buzz surrounding the biggest marketing event of the year.
  • According to Alex Iskold, founder and CEO of GetGlue, more than 150,000 users checked-in to the Super Bowl on GetGlue, three-times more than any previous event.

Twitter ruled the social media sphere once again this year, with live tweets referencing the Super Bowl estimated at 13.7 million during the game.

Super Bowl XLVI made two new Twitter records, putting this years game in the 2nd and 3rd highest tweets per second rating. @Twitter posted the stats: “The highest Tweets per second #SuperBowl peak came at the end of the game: 12,233. 2nd highest was during Madonna's performance: 10,245.”

“This was truly a watershed year for social media and the Super Bowl,” Edward Boches, Mullen’s chief innovation officer, said in a statement. Just about every brand built interactive elements into their commercials, knowing that the true measurement of success these days is immediate consumer reaction and long-term consumer engagement.”

Will Nesbit