The 2012 Super Bowl was a great example of why moving beyond simple buzz and sentiment metrics is required to get a true understanding of what most resonates with consumers. CI's engaged consumers metric (taking into account several levels of positive word-of-mouth as well as negative reactions), revealed the clear winner of Super Bowl advertisers (as of the end of game night, 11PM ET): M&Ms.
The Winners
Competing against brands airing multiple ads, M&M's single good-natured commercial integrated sex, candy, and cartoon characters in a classy way, generating enough positive buzz to make it the overall Engaged Consumers metric. M&Ms was in the top two of nearly all positive engagement metrics: Favorite, Funny, Favorite, Affinity, and Purchase Language. They clearly achieved the biggest bang for the buck.
There were actually three overall winners. M&M's, Doritos, and Chevrolet together comprised 38% of the overall share of engaged consumers. Doritos (2 spots) came in a close second, capturing 15.8% of all engaged consumers, and were number one for total buzz. Chevrolet placed first in Purchase Intent and third on the overall engaged consumers list.
Automotive
Chevy (3 spots) was the clear winner in the automotive vertical with Engaged Consumers. The post-Apocalyptic Silverado ad including Twinkies co-branding and the sweet sounds of Barry Manilow playing in the background was the biggest driver of the brand's conversation.
CPG
Sketchers came in a distant (5.5%), but surprisingly strong 4th place of all brands, especially given that they, like M&M's aired only one spot. Other notable spots in CPG were Budweiser 3.0%, H&M with its David Beckham spot (2.7%), and Pepsi (2.7%).
Movie Trailers
Hunger Games, although only choosing to run pre-game and being an unestablished franchise, did amazingly well. Buzz from trailers leaked in the days (and hour) before the game helped carry its momentum through the game. The Avengers was 1st in Viewing Intent and ranked extremely high on the individual metrics, especially Viewing Intent. . More specifically, consumers expressed high interest in seeing the movie, as well as discussing. Viewing intent, one of CI's engagement metrics, put Avengers at #1 and Hunger Games at #3. Both movie trailers ranked in top 10 for affinity.
GoDaddy, Unsurprisingly the "Most Offensive"
As expected, Go Daddy came out with a very provocative ad that had minimal relevance to their brand - using attractive scantily dressed women to promote their domain and hosting services.
Some interesting details that may not have been captured or noticed by other companies are the following:
• Go Daddy was by far the highest ranked under "Offensive", taking the majority of all conversations in this category - over 58%
• However, there was NOT much overall conversation in general around the Go Daddy ads
For more information, please stay tuned in Collective Intellect or see our work on CNBC. Also, be aware of industry-specific engaged conversations brand tracker metrics coming soon.