I promised to report on the performance of the Superbowl ads on YouTube. This is actually not as simple as it sounds because the different ads were not uploaded at the same time and some had an unfair advantage for having been up on YouTube for a couple of days before the Superbowl. Therefore we normalised out all activity from before the Superbowl actually ran and only measured the increase in views, comments, and ratings between the 2nd and the 4th February. Here are the resulting rankings:
| Rank |
New Views
|
New Comments
|
New Ratings
|
Final Rating
|
| 1 | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | Careerbuilder.com | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | Bridgestone - Astronauts |
| 2 | Careerbuilder.com | Hulu | Careerbuilder.com | Hulu |
| 3 | Pedigree | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | Hulu | Monster.com |
| 4 | Bud Light - Meeting | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Miller - 1 Second |
| 5 | SoBe - 3D Lizards | Miller - 1 Second | Miller - 1 Second | Doritos - Crystal Ball |
| 6 | Miller - 1 Second | Pepsi Max - PetSuber | Pepsi Max - PetSuber | Coke - Insect |
| 7 | Doritos - Crystal Ball | SoBe - 3D Lizards | Cheetos | Careerbuilder.com |
| 8 | Bridgestone - Potato Head | Bridgestone - Astronauts | Pedigree | Cheetos |
| 9 | GE - Scarecrow | Cash4Gold | Bridgestone - Potato Head |
Etrade - Singing Baby |
| 10 | HR Block - Death and Taxes | Angels and Daemons | Bridgestone - Astronauts |
(not unique) |
There are some interesting observations:
The Pepsi ad , while tops on views, comments, and number of ratings, actually didn't rate as highly as the the others. My guess is that it has more informative than entertainment value and thus does not excite people as much to make a high rating.
The Bud Light ad received lots of views, but didn't really engage people to make comments or ratings. People probably just agreed that cutting back on beer is not a good idea.
The SoBe 3D Lizards ad raised interest and comments, but wasn't really rated either even though there were lots of special effects and the cool idea of a 3D ad.
The Bridgestone Astronauts ad was rated the highest, but it didn't receive anywhere near the same number of new views as the others.
A similar effect is visible for the Hulu ad , which came second in rank, but has even less views than the Astronauts.
Now, other sites have also published rankings for the Superbowl ads, so let's compare our outcome with that of others:
| Rank | USA Today Viewed Online |
Nielsen IAG
|
Ad Blitz | Twitter Tweetbowl |
Vquence
|
| 1 | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Budweiser - Clydesdale New Tricks | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Hulu | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem |
| 2 | Budweiser - Clydesdale Circus | Doritos - Power of Crunch | Etrade - Singing Baby | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | Careerbuilder.com |
| 3 | Doritos - Power of Crunch | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Careerbuilder.com | Bud Light - Meeting | Pedigree |
| 4 | Bridgestone - Potato Head | Pedigree | Pepsi Max - I'm Good | GoDaddy - Shower | Bud Light - Meeting |
| 5 | Cars.com | Careerbuilder.com | Doritos - Power of Crunch | Coke - Insect | SoBe - 3D Lizards |
| 6 | Budweiser - Clydesdale New Tricks | Budweiser - Clydesdale Generations | (only did top 5) | Doritos - Crystal Ball | Miller - 1 Second |
| 7 | Pedigree | Budweiser - Clydesdale Circus | - | GI Joe | Doritos - Crystal Ball |
| 8 | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | Bridgestone - Astronauts | - | Star Trek | Bridgestone - Potato Head |
| 9 | Bud Light - Meeting | NFL | - | Careerbuilder.com | GE - Scarecrow |
| 10 | Coke - Insect | Pepsi - Refresh Anthem | - | Bridgestone - Potato Head | HR Block - Death and Taxes |
The methodologies between these rankings are very different. The USA Today is an online survey, the Nielseon IAG one is a panel, Tweetbowl measured the number of tweets on a particular ad, and Vquence the number of views on YouTube of the ads. However, there are some similarities.
Clearly, there are some common winners:
- Doritos - Crystal Ball
- Careerbuilder.com
- Doritos - Power of Crunch
-
Pepsi - Refresh Anthem (now at 1.5M views at YouTube!)
- Pedigree
- Bud Light - Meeting
- Bridgestone - Potato Head
Some other are only on one top 10 list:
- Cars.com
- Budweiser - Clydesdale Generations
- NFL (isn't even on most lists of ads shown )
- Etrade - Singing Baby
- Pepsi Max - I'm Good
- Hulu
- GoDaddy - Shower
- GI Joe
-
Star Trek (though I am uncertain this one is the actual ad)
- GE - Scarecrow
- HR Block - Death and Taxes
- Miller - 1 Second
Feel free to make up your own personal favorite. I really quite like the last one - a one second ad by Miller of a guy screaming "High Life".