So how did Super Bowl hashtags do in the final analysis? Who were the big winners? We took a look at the Hashtracking Super Tag Leaderboard for more insight into how the day played out for top dollar advertisers.
Big Brand Advertising and the Super Bowl have been inseparable for decades. But in the last three years, as the second screen has become a fixture in nearly every home, hashtags have become an essential part of that Super Sunday Sandwich.
Hashtags are the not-so-secret sauce, a sauce that most advertisers have caught on to. Nearly every ad aired sported a custom hashtag.
Hashtracking began tracking known Super Bowl Ad hashtags early Saturday before the game. It was no surprise, given the strategic leaking of game day tags in years past, that many of the hashtags were already quite active, well before the kickoff.
Several brands actively seeded the conversation around their campaign, previewing their ads, sharing their hashtags and inviting participation. Examples of this were Budweiser’s #Salute and AXE’s #KissForPeace that aired content on billboards in Times Square in the 24 hours leading up to the game. This activity is reflected in the timelines below.
But for many of the hashtags, significant usage wasn’t seen until the moments after the ads aired. Such was the case with Coca Cola’s #AmericaIsBeautiful hashtag which took off with significant traffic spikes immediately after airing.
Some Universal Findings:
- Across all the hashtags Hashtracking tracked on game day, activity peaked during commercial breaks and dropped off during game play.
- Activity peaked in the moments after the commercials aired and continued to spike during later commercial breaks when other ads were aired and campaigns were compared.
- Big Game Tweeters preferred tweeting from their mobile devices. On some hashtags, Hashtracking saw over 90% of the tweets coming in via mobile.
Also interesting:
Campaign hashtags, those that expressed an idea or slogan, such as #KissforPeace #AmericaisBeautiful #BestBuds vastly outperformed brand name hashtags.The one exception was #Doritos – the only brand name hashtag to make the top ten on Hashtracking’s Leaderboard.
Top Tweeters who shared the #Doritos love included Perez Hilton, Huffington Post and MC Hammer.
The Winner:
The clear winner of the night was #EsuranceSave30 – a hashtag that rocketed into the #1 spot on the Hashtracking Leaderboard after being announced in an ad spot aired immediately after the game ended. It shot into the lead, within moments of being introduced. This hashtag won on several fronts.
- Sheer numbers and velocity In only an hour’s time it vastly outperformed all other tags, with up to 2,000/tweets per second during peak usage.
- Hashtag Creation Strategy By using the brand name and the message together, the brand assured that the message would remain with the brand and not be lost or forgotten in the flood of competing tweets and retweets.
- Audience penetration While many of the hashtags relied on tweeters assistance sharing to help the hashtag and brand message to “go viral” and generate max timeline deliveries, #EsuranceSave30 didn’t count on the vagaries of followers and uncertainty of retweets /secondary tweets to drive a marketing message home. They made their impression in the first tidal wave-like round of tweets, getting masses of twitter users to tweet with a memorable, clearly branded message. They say the act of writing something down helps it stick. Surely the same can be said of tweeting with a specific hashtag, and particularly one with such a clear and simple message. The number of timeline deliveries generated by #EsuranceSave30 was staggering but timeline deliveries are always less of a sure thing. What is more impressive here is the sheer number of tweeters - people that definitely got the message. Hundreds of thousands of tweeters were activated and excited to tweet with Esurance’s memorable tag.
How did #EsuranceSave30 score the final touchdown in the Hashtag game? By going green. They placed a bet and it paid off in spades, in tweets.
#EsuranceSave30 did not rely on pop culture or schemes to go viral. They paid for their tweets – by offering a 1.5 million dollar prize to a random tweeter to use their tag.
This was a simple, direct and ultimately effective ploy. Their play proved that evocative imagery, inspiring quotes, noble causes, national pride, hip humor, sexy abs and adorable puppies still can’t compete with our innate urge to grab a piece of the pie for ourselves.
When it comes to spreading hashtags quickly, incentives can and do work. “What’s in it for me?” is a question that seems to linger at the tips of legions of tweeter fingertips.
The swift response to #EsuranceSave30 is something that other marketers are sure to take note of. We expect to see other incentive based campaigns spiking high impressions in the end zone during future events.
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