Super Bowl 49 was perhaps the greatest Super Bowl of all-time, speaking of the game. The ads, not so much. But mediocrity didn’t stop the relationship between advertising and social media.
Hashtags slipped, but still dominated the super bowl ad scene. Hastags were in half of all ads, 28 in total. Facebook was only mentioned in in four ads, Twitter in three ads and Snapchat in only one. These don’t include promos for NBC television. So while Hashtag made it in 50% of all non-NBC Super Bowl ads, that’s down from 50% last year. You Tube, Instagram, or Google Plus were not represented at all. Snapchat’s only representation were to promote upcoming film comedy Picture Perfect 2. T-Mobile was the only company to include Facebook and Twitter in their ads. Some company ads, like those backed by Geico and Budweiser, ?didn’t feature any online or social media mentions at all. Some others, like Turbo Tax and Nationwide, only featured their own Internet address. In fact, nearly half the companies advertised last night had their online address URL in the ad.
It’s estimated that Super Bowl commercials influence at least 10 million people to buy the sponsor’s product or service. This nation’s population is over 318 million, so that may not sound like a big number, but it is. If you can convince millions of people to support your business on this occasion, you’re doing something right. I’m still wondering why Hashtags still dominate so well over all online forms, except for URL’s. I think every commercial should include a web address in this day and age, and more should include Facebook and Twitter as well. So how did the advertising do? Well, I found a website that had a playlist of all the non-NBC based Super Bowl ads of 2015. To me, some of them were way too long. At 4.5 million for a 30 second ad, it’s good to know some companies have this much money to gamble with. But you be the judge.