The Ravens may have walked away with Sunday’s real glory, but Super Bowl XLVII was also an epic day for Twitter. The social media service is a natural choice for up-to-the-minute news and commetary of a nation glued to the game. Across 24.1 million tweets, Super Bowl watchers cheered for their team of choice (@ravens or @49ers), commented on the chaos when the lights went out and chatted up 5.5 million tweets about half-time performer and all-around pop culture demi-goddess Beyoncé.
According to Twitter’s official blog, the top most-tweeted moments of Super Bowl XLVII were as follows (measured in Tweets-per-minute or TPM):
- Power outage: 231,500 TPM
- 108-yard kickoff return for Ravens TD by Jones: 185,000 TPM
- Clock expires; Ravens win: 183,000 TPM
- Jones catches 56-yard pass for Ravens TD (end of 2nd quarter): 168,000 TPM
- Gore TD for 49ers: 131,000 TPM
Twitter Tops Facebook
Twitter also made an extremely strong showing in the commercials, the real meat of the game for some viewers. With 26 mentions (counted as a hashtag, a URL, a logo or a verbal name drop) in the 52 nationally aired Super Bowl XLVII commercials, Twitter bested Facebook for advertisement shout-outs by a factor of more than six . Facebook scored a surprisingly low four mentions. Last year, out of 59 national commercials, Twitter and Facebook were both mentioned eight times each.
Brands with Twitter mentions in their Super Bowl XLVII commercials, courtesy of some real-time tallying over at MarketingLand:
- M&Ms – #betterwithmms
- Audi – #braverywins
- Hyundai – #pickyourteam
- GoDaddy – #thescore
- Doritos – #doritos
- Best Buy – #infiniteanswers
- Disney Oz – #disneyoz
- Fast & Furious movie – #fastandfurious
- Toyota – #wishgranted
- Doritos – #doritos
- Calvin Klein – #calvinklein
- Cars.com – #nodrama
- Bud Light – #herewego
- Hyundai Sonata – #epicplaydate
- Volkswagen – #gethappy
- Subway – #15yrwinningstreak
- Subway – #FebruANY
- Bud Light – #herewego
- Subway – #FebruANY
- Bud Light – #herewego
- MiO Fit – #changestuff
- Pistachios – #crackinstyle
- Speed Stick – #handleit
- Budweiser Clydesdales – #clydesdales
- Tide – #miraclestain
- Samsung – #thenextbigthing
Which hashtags actually scored the most social traction during the big game? According to Networked Insights, the following brands came out on top:
- #Doritos (Pepsi Frito-Lay)
- #Clydesdales (Budweiser)
- #CrackInStyle (Wonderful Pistachios)
- #CalvinKlein (Calvin Klein)
- #GodMadeAFarmer (Ram)
Taking other social networks into account, including Facebook, blogs and other forums, these were the top 10 ads by social mentions:
- GoDaddy’s “Perfect Match” (255,121)
- Taco Bell “Viva Young” (213,125)
- Calvin Klein “Concept 30” (209,539)
- AB InBev “Brotherhood” (154,037)
- Ram “Farmer” (96,326)
- Orea “Cookie v Cream” (65,373)
- Wonderful Pistachios “Crackin’ Style” (58,938)
- Tide “Miracle Stain” (55,770)
- Doritos “Goat” (51,053)
- Doritos “Fashionista” (47,962)
What Does It All Mean?
Facebook has 1.06 billion members and isn’t going away. But now that everyone and their grandma is on the social network, Facebook may not be the frontier of social cool it once was.
And since Super Bowl commercial slots are among the most coveted in the entire year, brands are well-served to put their best, brightest, hippest face forward, and this year that meant nudging couch potatoes toward their Twitter account or hashtag in real-time – exactly what Twitter does best.
Image via cloud.li.
