Super Bowl XLVI was supposed to contain the widest swath of social media in history, driving people to Facebook, to Twitter, and to YouTube non-stop. It had a social listening Command Center, staffed by 50+ people helping fans throughout Indianapolis and online with logistical as well as overall game questions. Advance media coverage of the in-game advertising covered everything from Tweeting polar bears (not referenced at all during the real ads) to follow-up spots to last year’s most talked-about spot, the Volkswagen Darth Vader kid.

It was billed as the equivalent of a Fourth of July fireworks finale, but instead, only a literal handful of the ads aimed to connect viewers beyond the spot into social media.

Looked at out of context, the game’s ads could have easily been running 3-4 years ago as platforms like Facebook and Twitter just started to enter the public consciousness while the Web remained commonplace in business and brand advertising.

Skipping over all local Chicago advertisements that couldn’t be seen nationwide as well as all of the NBC spots for its shows and NFL ad references, here’s what I caught in 60+ ads between kickoff and the final whistle (that also excludes the very local halftime ads but does include the Clint Eastwood / Chrysler ad):

  • Only four spots ran a URL directing people to Facebook
    • Pepsimax.com/facebook in Q1
    • Facebook.com/avengers in Q2
    • Facebook.com/budlight in Q4
    • Facebook.com/samsungmobileusa in Q4
  • Twitter #hashtags started out strong, two in the first five ads and then they disappeared. Only six total through the game, five from unique advertisers:
    • #makeitplatinum for Anheuser-Busch (2x) in Q1
    • #solongvampires for Audi in Q1
    • #betterway for Best Buy in Q1
    • #whatworks for GE in Q2
    • #beckhamforhm for H&M in Q2
  • Two ads contained Shazam technology, urging people to pull out their cell phones and use the mobile audio recognition application for further engagement:
    • Pepsi in Q1
    • Cars.com in Q2
    • Overall Web URLs were prevalent throughout but just under half of the ads did not include a URL to anything, be it a Web site, Facebook, or Twitter.

In a day and age where a compelling Super Bowl ad drives people to talk about your product, each ad had a tremendous opportunity to create additional engagement after the game, and only a handful did.

Still, it’s fun to look at the ads in whole, to see which categories broke through and which brands ran the most spots in comparison to others. Here’s a pair of word clouds, that illustrate which advertisers and categories had the most frequency…and perhaps that frequency will be what’s needed to cut through this year. Which ads did you find did the best job amplifying via social media and which ones do you wish had done a better job?

Super Bowl Ads by Industry

Super Bowl Ads by Brand

 

Disclosure: Many of the companies and brands referenced are clients of Weber Shandwick.