Advertising, Marketing, Social Data

The Brands That Won the Super Bowl, According to Sprinklr Social Insights

Rachel Alvarez

February 4th, 2019

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7 min read

The only reason I watch the Super Bowl is for the ads. As a Boston-born Pats fan, I’m slightly ashamed to admit this. But facts are facts – when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday, my priorities are ads, food, and football (in that order). Luckily, I’m not the only one who would rather see a cool Tide ad than a touchdown.

The Super Bowl is the place for brands to be seen by over 100 million TV viewers and even more observers on Twitter. To track the Twitter buzz around Super Bowl ads, Sprinklr measured and analyzed the response to purpose-driven advertisements vs. ads with standard brand messages during the game. For this data analysis, Sprinklr applied the World Advertising Research Center’s (WARC) definition of brand purpose. According to WARC, “Purpose is a reason for a brand to exist beyond making a profit. It combines the ambitions and beliefs that motivate the organization and the changes that it wants to make in the world.”

This analysis provided a great opportunity to collaborate with our strategic partner Twitter and the 3% Movement, a company founded to promote the role of women in creative leadership at ad agencies. The organization derives its name from a 2008 finding that only 3 percent of creative directors at top ad agencies were women.

Check out #3PercentSB on Twitter to see a real-time feed of ad reactions. And below, we’ve laid out the top 6 Sprinklr findings, which are based on Twitter data pulled from 5:30pm ET until 10:15pm ET on February 3rd (full methodology):

1) Microsoft had the most talked about purpose-driven ad overall, while Bumble produced the most talked about purpose-driven ad during the first half of the game. Microsoft drove 57% of the share of voice for most talked about purpose-driven ads on Twitter. With the message, “When everybody plays, we all win,” the Microsoft commercial features children with disabilities who talk about how Microsoft’s new Xbox Adaptive Controller helps them play video games.

Verizon, Google, Budweiser, and Bumble round out the top 5 most talked about purpose-driven ads on Twitter during the Super Bowl, according to Sprinklr’s social listening analysis.

Verizon’s Super Bowl ad – dubbed “The team that wouldn’t be here” – pays tribute to the first responders who rescued various NFL players from life-threatening injuries. Google’s second Super Bowl ad focused on how Google’s job search tools can help veterans find work. Budweiser’s ad announced the company is now brewing beer with 100 percent renewable electricity from wind power. And finally, Bumble’s ad featured Serena Williams and sent a strong message about female empowerment with the hashtag #InHerCourt. This was the most talked about ad during the first half of the Super Bowl and it influenced one of the most re-tweeted Gifs of the night, featuring Serena Williams being the fabulous queen that she is.

2) Non purpose-driven ads such as Bud Light and Doritos were the most talked about on Twitter, while purpose-driven ads such as Microsoft and Verizon produced consistently positive sentiment. 87.6% of Tweets about purpose-driven ads were positive compared to 74% of non-purpose driven ads.

3) Bud Light had the Super Bowl’s most talked about ad, dominating 32% of the conversation. Adding a comedic twist to Bud Light’s medieval-themed “Dilly Dilly” campaign, a series of commercials highlighted the fact that the company does not use corn syrup in its beer. Naturally, Bud Light’s most talked about commercial featured a tie-in to Game of Thrones.

Beyond Bud Light, the top 5 most talked about non purpose-driven ads were released by Doritos, Pepsi, Avocados from Mexico, and Hyundai.

4) During the Super Bowl, 52.85% of Tweets about purpose-driven ads were from women. This supports the 3% Movement’s findings that women not only watch equally on Super Bowl Sunday, but they buy and share socially in greater numbers than men.

5) The top three Super Bowl commercials with the most positive mentions on Twitter were Microsoft, Avocados from Mexico and Bud Light. Microsoft’s #WeAllWin ad had the highest positive sentiment on Twitter out of any commercial during the Super Bowl, with nearly double the amount of positive Tweets than the next runner up – Avocados from Mexico.

6) The most talked about emojis and hashtags during the Super Bowl were classics. People stuck to standard emojis such as the football, TV, and yellow heart winning the top three spots. Not surprisingly, Tweets of the goat emoji were popular throughout the game. The most used hashtags on Twitter were #sblIII, #superbowl and #superbowlliii.

“This data is a powerful demonstration of the unique opportunity marketers have when they tap into these powerful conversations happening on Twitter,” said Ryan Oliver, Senior Director of Brand Strategy, US & Canada at Twitter. “Twitter’s audience continues to shape our culture, providing the best place for brands to authentically connect with people, in the moments they’re most receptive.”

The Big Game Power of Sprinklr 

Sprinklr works with more than 1,000 big brands, including a few that ran advertisements during the Super Bowl. These brands rely on Sprinklr to help them listen to and engage with mentions of their brand. And because consumers want answers immediately, brands rely on Sprinklr to help them quickly route Twitter mentions or Direct Messages to the appropriate social media manager for a rapid response. During the game (and other important events), brands can watch real-time social media data on the big screen using Sprinklr Display. And, when it’s all over, they can use Sprinklr’s campaign reporting capabilities to recap their ad success.