Super Bowl XLIX wasn’t just a big win for the New England Patriots – many brands and themes generated a lot of buzz during last night’s game! Last week, we rounded up and shared a few ad trend predictions. Now that the ad frenzy is behind us, we can offer a few highlights about what proved effective for many brands during Super Bowl XLIX.
1. “Dadvertising” continues to be a powerful ad trend
From Nissan to Dove, “dadvertising” was a major theme of the Super Bowl XLIX ads. These commercials tugged the heartstrings to target dads with messaging traditionally reserved for moms, reflecting the modern view that dads are taking a more active role in the household and becoming major purchasers. Brands are taking notice.
2. Twitter and Facebook see highest Super Bowl numbers ever
Both Twitter and Facebook reached record-setting milestones during Super Bowl XLIX. Last night’s game was the most tweeted Super Bowl in history and saw the highest level of conversation during a Super Bowl on Facebook. Here’s a short comparison on how each platform performed last night:
- On Facebook, 65 million people generated 265 million posts, comments and likes about the Super Bowl
- Twitter streamed 28.4 million tweets about Super Bowl XLIX (last year’s game saw 25 million tweets)
- Fifty percent of Super Bowl XLIX ads used hashtags, while Facebook was mentioned four times in ads
- Women aged 25-34 and women aged 35-44 were the top represented demographic groups in Super Bowl XLIX’s Facebook conversation
Snapchat also made its Super Bowl debut last night during the “Pitch Perfect 2” ad. The app recently launched the Discover feature, which it describes as “a new way to explore Stories from different editorial teams.”
3. Brands channel positivity and emotion in Super Bowl XLIX ads
Many ads last night focused on sending positive, emotional messages to consumers as opposed to using humor or shock value. According to Ace Metrix, a TV analytics company that scores ads by viewer sentiment, the top-ranking ads of the night went to McDonald’s “Pay with Lovin,” Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” and Coca-Cola’s “#MakeItHappy.” McDonald’s “Pay with Lovin” received an ace score of 706, one of the highest Super Bowl Ace Scores of all time, and 21 percent above the category norm for Quick Service Restaurants.
Ace Metrix CEO Peter Daboll said, “McDonald’s is on trend with messages of positivity that really resonate with consumers. For the past few years, we’ve seen a pivotal shift away from sheer shock value and slapstick humor toward emotional connectivity in Super Bowl ads. There were a banner crop of ads this year – from brands like McDonald’s, Always, Budweiser, and Coca-Cola – that are continuing to embrace this emotional connection.”
What were your favorite ads of the night?
