Mobile apps analytics and advertising company Flurry tracked mobile app usage across various stages of the Super Bowl. What they found was that there was one particular segment that had people glued to their televisions.
Flurry began the study with the belief that the “second screen” (a mobile device, the “first screen” being the TV) is still “largely more disruptive than complementary.” Basically, people aren’t really using their devices in tandem with the TV – more like opposed to it. When something happening on the TV isn’t interesting to a viewer, they are then likely to pick up their iPhone and start playing Angry Birds.
Their study pretty much corroborated that belief. Big moments in the Super Bowl broadcast equated to decreases in app usage. People put down their phones for things like the coin toss and for kickoff.
But the longest sustained period of time with a drop in app usage covering the entire Super Bowl came during Madonna’s halftime performance.
Whether people were watching because they thought it was awesome, or because it’s hard to look away from a train wreck – the point is people were tuned in.
From the post:
Studying overall trends reveals a highly correlated, inverse relationship between app usage and game, halftime and commercial events. Generally, app usage increased steadily over the first three quarters of the game, showing the challenge in holding peoples’ attention over several hours. However, because this year’s game was close throughout, including an exciting fourth quarter finish, app usage remained relatively checked.
Noticeably, app usage declined significantly during the last part of the fourth quarter. The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time. From this, we conclude that Madonna strongly held viewers’ attention on the first screen and was a major draw for the Super Bowl this year.
Advertisement popularity was also found to link to a decrease in mobile app usage. The ad that saw the smallest use in apps was Elton John’s Pepsi commercial.
A pakistani fisherman has caught a 40 foot long whale shark. The shark weighs about 6.5 tons and was found floating unconscious about 150 kilometers off the shore. It was dead by the time it was removed from the water. It took five cranes to pull the massive fish from the water onto the docks.
Whale sharks are a protected species and are in danger of extinction. While they appear to be dangerous, whale sharks are gentle giants. The whale fish is the largest fish in the sea and spends most of its time in warm water.
The man who brought the fish in has supposedly sold the creature for $18,000.
These are stock photos of a whale shark and not the actual catch from pakistan.
What happens when the BBC tracks down an Internet troll? Pure hilarity.
Now trolling is never nice, but to film the tracking of an Internet troll like it was “To Catch a Predator” is just odd. It’s obvious that trolls use the anonymity of the Internet to attack people they don’t know to make themselves feel superior. It’s the bullying of the Internet era. Does it make it right? No. Does it make entertaining television? It sure does.
Check out the clip from the episode below where they confront the confirmed troll in public as he is getting onto a bus. The reporter tries to convince the man that what he is doing is hurtful to others and the troll just responds, “It ain’t illegal.” That’s pure comic gold, dear readers.
We don’t condone trolling at WebProNews, but for it to be taken so seriously just boggles the mind. Enjoy.
Twitter is a wonderful place for one-liners. To be funny on the site, you’ve got to be sharp and practice economy of language. You’ve only got 140 characters to make an impression.
And what better way to wind-down the work day than with a selection of some of the day’s most entertaining tweets.
@McCainBlogette Meghan McCainIf Rick Santorum becomes our nominee – it will be the first really significant evidence I’ve seen that the Mayans might be right about 2012.5 hours ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, via social media, sharing sites, or good ‘ole email. Everyday we highlight some of the best that are currently viral and some that are trending that way.
Today’s videos feature BYU sharing its Black History Month knowledge, a Skyrim battle that rivals Braveheart & Lord of the Rings, Go-Go Juice, and a Courtney Stodden mermaid.
My favorite thing about this video is that it has, quite possibly, produced the greatest presidential photo ever taken (see above).
God bless the machinima community, without them we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the absolute pieces of art they construct for free.
CNN attempting to win over the 13 year old teenager market – Santorum Wins South Dakota…WTFBBQ. Keep it coming Blitzer, your Jeopardy performance starts to make sense.
Baby sounds make the internet go round, and round…
Some amazing effects in this video, and if you’re into a trippy experience then I highly recommend it.
In all my years treating the internet like a playground and looking at all the weird stuff I could, I didn’t think I could be shocked…I’m not always right. I have nothing to say…
Go-Go Juice, a mixture of Mountain Dew and Red Bull; what every growing girl needs to compete on the beauty pageant circuit.
A wonderful, and imaginative animated movie about a cat trying to survive in a world filled with water.
This video is causing some controversy, for good reason. It’s very eye-opening, and it makes you wonder how these people got to college without knowing these things. The host of the special certainly went with the controversial route as well.
Isn’t she (Courtney Stodden) only 16 years old? Oh well, time to go check my credit score…
Be still, conservative hearts, as we delve into one of the more lascivious phenomenons of our age: the Casual Encounter.
For those uninitiated in this most carnal of social activities, a casual encounter can be defined as any of the following: no-strings-attached sex, relationship-free sex, one night stand (though not limited to one night), booty calls, hook-ups, f**k buddies, friends with benefits, guy/girl on the side – the list is probably endless.
As maligned as such an lifestyle still remains in certain regions of our culture, more and more people are refusing to be shamed by their need to get their rocks off. Now, something bawdy this way comes in the shape of a “report” claiming that casual sexual encounters arranged on the Internet are more likely to end in with a walk down the aisle than walks of shame.
OnlineBootyCall.com, a website whose purpose you can probably parse for yourself as well as the world’s number one destination for casual online dating (that last part is a euphemism for casual sex, by the way), has “studied” the testimonials members have given as to why they’ve decided to delete their profile. Brilliantly titled “testiMOANials,” OBC says that an “overwhelming majority” of those departing site members claim to have found true love on the website. In a statement released today, the purveyors of promiscuity say that the second most-cited reason members leave OBC is because they have “started dating someone I met.”
OnlineBootyCall.com shared a testimonial of one satisfied woman who, after a successful booty call yielded repeated encounters, ended up settling down with someone she found on the site:
“I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars nor did I have to wait over 6 months to find the completion of my heart.” She and her husband met four years ago on OnlineBootyCall, have been married for three years, and have a 2-year-old daughter together. “We both sit back and laugh now at how we met because he nor I wanted anyone to know … lol,” she says, “but now I’ll just tell anybody … I love that man!! Thank you again OBC!”
OnlineBootyCall’s founder and president, Moses Brown pledged that, apropos of nothing, “all online encounters should be considered casual until proven otherwise.” In spite of that slippery adage, he explained the high frequency of happy endings on OnlineBootyCall, “Sites like eHarmony put too much emphasis on the serious task of starting relationships online. At OBC, our members are having fun meeting new people and are dating without the pressure of commitment.”
I doubt that this report will find its way into any scientific journals any time soon, nor do I imagine a significant increase in people willing to drop their drawers for strangers, but.. you gotta give OBC a hand for trying, right?
A joint survey conducted by 463 Communications and JZ Analytic has revealed some very interesting facts about Americas perceptions of who the top 1% of income earners are and what kinds of lives they lead. The survey results come from one thousand participants and was given in early 2012.
The figures from the survey report one serious misconception about who the top 1% really are. Over 50% of the people surveyed believed that an individual had to make at least one million dollars to be in the top 1%. According to the IRS, the number is actually quite lower. To be in the top 1% of American wage earners you only need to make about $350,000 a year.
Of course most of us believe the 1% is living the high-life. 73% believe the 1% all have more than one home. 60% are under the impression that these folks are flying around in private jets or at the very least, always traveling first class (63%). 63% also believe that the top 1% take overseas vacations once a year or more. Almost 80% of people thought that the upper 1% employed in-house gardeners and cooks.
Almost everyone from the survey agreed that the 1% is mostly composed of financial executives, entrepreneurs, politicians, lobbyists or people that have inherited a business. Almost no one thought that education, real estate, law, or medical professions were a path to the 1%. Less than 2% thought that the richest Americans worked harder than anyone else.
While only 60% of the people reported feeling that the rich don’t pay enough in tax, 3% reported that they were in-fact, part of the top 1%. I think that’s really interesting; they believe you need to make at least a million to be in the club, but 30 people from the survey report they are the top 1%. So we can safely guess that their were a fair amount of millionaires participating in the survey. I wonder how that skews the results?
Regardless of what they said about the richest 1%, almost 65% agreed that they would like to be part of the group. I think that’s a no-brainer. Would you like more money?
This week in “What has science done?” comes the pooping robot.
Before you ask, yes, the robot actually does ingest matter and excretes it out. Scientists working at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory invented a robot that powers itself by ingesting food and water, digesting it and then releasing the leftover waste just as a human does.
“Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere,” John Greenman, a scientist at the laboratory, told SA. “There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces.”
The robot is called EcoBot and has been around since 2003. The first EcoBot fed off of E. coli bacteria that fed on refined sugars. The EcoBot-II used sludge microbes to digest dead flies, prawn shells and rotten apples. The latest model, EcoBot-III, is the robot that dumps the leftover waste it “digests.” If it didn’t do this, the robot would become poisoned by its own waste and stop working.
The scientists claim that these robots can keep operating for upwards of 30 years as long as they have food to eat.
The team has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their work. They hope to turn the robots into a machine that can tackle both sanitation and energy needs in poor countries that need it the most.
NASA is also eyeing the technology for extended space travel. If the robots can survive off of human waste, they would be the perfect companion for astronauts traveling to distant planets like Mars.
Fortunately for humanity, the robots can only perform tasks in short bursts before needing to recharge again. Once the technology improves, however, we can expect robots to eat everything on the earth in their tireless domination of the human species.
What is it about smartphones, YouTube, and social media in general that turns normal people into a useless crowd of video “auteurs” who’re more concerned with getting a video up instead of preventing others from needlessly hurting each other?
Granted, Internet videos of people fighting are as old as the invention of online video, but after seeing these pop up over and over again after any sporting event of note, it’s becoming clear that the downfall of society will not be a nuclear war or a zombie apocalypse.
It will be because people were too concerned with getting good video of the world crumbling around them instead of trying to do something about it.
Perhaps I’m overreacting, but after watching the upcoming video of Giants fans fighting at the Super Bowl parade — female fans, no less — the fact people are more concerned with letting the fight happen, all so they can film it is disheartening.
Or maybe I’m just getting old. Here’s the video in question:
Cat fight! Cat fight!
Let me guess. The first girl slept with the other girl’s boyfriend while Eli Manning was doing his MVP thing at the Super Bowl and got caught. Now, they’re playing the feud while a bunch of useless bystanders sit, watch, and video. Naturally, additional fights break out — again with females — as they, I don’t know, try to defend their “girl’s” honor?
Or maybe they just wanted to be on YouTube with they hair flying hither, dither and yon.
While the fighting itself is pretty standard for an Internet video, I’m still drawn to the crowd, one that’s more concerned with getting good video instead of putting a stop to the needless fracas. Is this what we’ve become? A society of attention whores who care more about being popular on the Internet than acting in a somewhat civilized manner?
While this particular topic was discussed by WebProNews during Super Bowl night, the late night talk show host has supplied us with a “greatest hits” of his prank, where he asked people to unplug their televisions during crucial parts of the Super Bowl.
The reaction to such a drastic move was about what you’d expect, but even though you know it’s coming, the round-up video still manages to be pretty damn funny, because, let’s face it, people don’t like their football-watching being interrupted. Especially during the Super Bowl. The reactions, as indicated, are normally in the vein of a “WTF?” reaction, but for some reason, they don’t get old.
Naturally, the video has enjoyed something of a viral reaction, having already accumulated over 900,000 views since it was posted on Monday (February 6). If you look at the YouTube comments, you’ll find the reaction to the video was largely positive.
There are a quite a few “That was a lot funnier than I expected it to be! Great job!” and “i don’t think i ever laughed so hard in my life!” comments, but, as with every YouTube comments section, there is a nice amount of trolling, as well:
Look at all those sheeple wake up America there are more important things going on right now !
It’s good to see that at least there is something Americans truly care about. Unfortunately, it is not banksters looting the economy and sending jobs overseas, only someone unplugging the TV during the Super Bowl. We are in a lot of trouble.
Commercials are the highlight of the Super Bowl; it’s that comic relief from the unbearable tension of the high stakes football game. From naughty body painting commercials to talking heads sprouting from a body, this year’s game had many hilarious and notable spots.
With many of the funniest spots making the list, the top spot, however, belongs to a very talented baby and his (or her) annoyed grandmother.
http://youtu.be/kds2YpA0Jf0
In the commercial a young boy proceeds to taunt the the grandma and innocent baby with a bag of Doritos from across the way in the safety of his club house. The grandmother, sick of the boy’s dastardly teasing, decides to make use of the baby’s bouncy swing. She then takes up the child, throws her power wheelchair in reverse and launches the baby across the yard. The whipper snapper nabs the bag from the hands of the surprised boy then returns safely to the porch to enjoy the snack with grandma.
The Super Bowl is always the biggest game to watch every year. Sports fans look forward to the day with great anticipation. Whether you love the game or enjoy the food and friendship, this is a great day for all people.
Regardless if you’re a child or an elder, the Super Bowl is one event watched no matter the age. It’s a clash of titans, the best of the best. All the year’s hard work comes to a head only to eventually explode in glorious victory.
With that being covered, it’s no wonder the big game was named as the most watched television program is history. Now, only adding compliment to courtesy, it has been named the most streamed online program in history with well over 2.1 million viewers. The NFL said that NBC’s streaming of the game was a “tremendous success in its first year”, according to a report in The New York Times
This is the first year NBC has streamed the Super Bowl live over the web, although they do regularly stream other games during the regular season.
SVP, Business Development and Managing Director of Digital Media, NBC Sports Group, Kevin Monaghan said this about the stream:
“The Super Bowl XLVI live stream exceeded our expectations in every way. Increasingly, sports fans are looking to digital coverage as a complementary ‘second screen’ experience, and we delivered on that promise with unprecedented robust coverage. The record traffic that grew throughout the event, as well as the record high engagement numbers, underscores the complementary aspect of digital as an enhancement to our exceptional television coverage.”
Hans Schroeder, NFL Senior Vice President of Media Strategy and Development commented on NBC’s streaming of the game:
“It was exciting to work with NBC Sports to offer fans the Super Bowl in more ways than ever before. The Super Bowl live stream was a tremendous success in its first year. We will continue to look for more ways to reach our fans.”
NBC says 2,105,441 active and unique users streamed Sunday’s game, while 4,589,593 live video streams were open. Combined, users spent 78,624,422 minutes streaming the game with an average of greater than 39 minutes spent actively engaged in viewing the game online.
The digital streaming space is about to get more crowded as Verizon and Redbox prepare to launch their own service. Yesterday, Coinstar, Redbox’s parent company, and Verizon announced they were partnering in a new venture. The companies are combining Verizon’s video on-demand streaming and download service with Redbox’s popular DVD kiosk service.
Does the venture from Redbox and Verizon sound like something you would want to purchase? We’d love to know.
Verizon and Redbox hope to give consumers an option that is a “simple and affordable way to access the video entertainment they crave.”
Speaking about the partnership, Coinstar CEO Pau Davis said:
“Consumers rely on Redbox for the latest new release movies at a great value, and our joint venture with Verizon will enable us to bring them even more value by offering expanded content offerings and greater flexibility for how and when they enjoy entertainment.”
“Together, we are erasing old technology boundaries, freeing people to spontaneously enjoy the entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the devices and media they prefer, at home or away,” added Bob Mudge, Verizon’s President of Consumer and Mass Business Markets.
Since the unnamed service is very similar to Netflix, a lot of people are wondering what will happen to it once this new venture launches. What’s more, the past several months have been rather rough for Netflix after it dramatically raised its prices last September. Consumers were outraged and some even dropped the service, as Bryan Gonzalez, the Director of Social Entertainment Labs at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, explained in this video:
WebProNews recently caught up with Gonzalez again to talk about this latest development. According to him, Netflix has to continue to focus on its content in order to effectively compete with Verizon and Redbox’s service.
“For Netflix to really continue competing, I think they’re really gonna need to push hard and try to get as much content up front as possible,” he said.
“As long as Netflix keeps that drum beat of fresh content – new content – to their streaming sector, I think they’ll do fine,” he added.
Should Netflix be worried? What do you think?
Gonzalez went on to raise an interesting point about the deal between Verizon and Redbox. As he explained, Netflix’s actions last year were part of a bigger effort to move away from its DVD service. However, it seems that this new venture focuses on the DVD side, which he believes could be due to accessibility issues that so many Americans face.
“A lot of Americans still don’t have very fast Internet connections, so streaming quality isn’t as great necessarily for everyone as a DVD or a Blu Ray,” Gonzalez pointed out.
Another potential issue he raised was in regards to Verizon’s current FIOS cable TV service. At this point, Verizon’s FIOS program is not national, but one can’t help but wonder what will happen since the new venture seems to contradict it.
These details and others were not disclosed in the announcement but are expected to come as the launch date gets closer. The companies said the new service would be available during the second half of the year.
Whatever you think and feel about the Super Bowl and the highly commercialized cult of consumerism that permeates every vein and pore of the event, you can’t really deny this: Will Ferrell had an awesome spot in that Old Milwaukee Beer commercial.
The only catch: you didn’t see it.
Nobody did. Well, almost nobody – one small community of people in North Platte, Nebraska, saw it because that was the only area in the country where the ad appeared. In fact, Deadspin reports that North Platte is the second-smallest TV market in the country. In case you don’t live in North Platte (and since there’s less than 25K people that live there, you probably don’t) and thus missed the commercial, here’s the epically elusive ad for Old Milwaukee Beer featuring Will Ferrell:
Beyond the hilarious fact that this ad was only seen by a mere handful of people on a day celebrated for commercial exuberance, the 15-second ad cuts off to the local news affiliate right as Ferrell beings to talk! That totally wins February. It does. It wins this month, likely March, and maybe even a few more months ahead. Amazing.
Somewhere, whether he’s dead or alive, Andy Kaufman is wearing that crazed smile of his with approval.
PS – If you’re so inclined, an HD version of this can be viewed at the above link to Deadspin.
Have you run out of TV shows to watch on Netflix? Fear not, because an all new show is premiering today – and it’s a Netflix exclusive.
Announced just a month ago, Lilyhammer is available to watch today. All eight episodes of the first season are being made available at once, meaning the impatient viewers among us can schedule a marathon session.
Lillyhammer sounds interesting enough. It stars Steven Van Zandt, who you might remember from his amazing role of Silvio from The Sopranos. You also might know him from his work with The Boss, as Van Zandt is the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Van Zandt stars as Frank Tagliano, a New York mobster that has to go into witness protection in Norway after testifying against a boss.
This show is different in many ways. First of all, this is surely the most ambitious original show to premiere online in history. The presence of an American star like Van Zandt and the production quality and the length of the episodes position “Lilyhammer” in the class of programing usually only found on premium pay television.
Van Zandt’s character understands Norwegian, but doesn’t speak it well, so the folks he encounters speak mostly in their native tongue with subtitles while Stevie speaks in English in the US and Canada. The episodes will be presented fully subtitled in local languages in Latin America. It is highly unusual for a single programmer to debut shows in multiple territories.
Apparently, the show is already a mega hit in Norway, as a whopping 1.2 million people watch every week (it’s been airing over there for 3 weeks). Since Norway only has about 5 million people, Lilyhammer is the most watched show in the country’s history. And even more important than that, it has The Boss’ approval. Springsteen went the the NY premiere and said he loved it.
Verizon and Redbox parent company Coinstar announced a joint venture, which will results in a streaming service for the popular movie rental service. The new service is supposed to launch in the second half of the year under a subscription-based model.
Redbox’s offerings today, are of course kiosk-based. People can go up to a kiosk at a grocery store, a McDonald’s, a Walgreens or other place, swipe their card, give their email address and rent a DVD or game. Redbox has become very popular thanks to the convenience (customers can return discs to any kiosk) and low prices. The lack of a streaming offering, however, has kept Redbox from being a bigger threat to Netflix and Blockbuster. That may soon change.
The announcement says that the venture’s services will offer Redbox’s new release DVD and Blu-ray rentals combined with “a new content-rich video on-demand streaming and download service from Verizon”.
“Consumers rely on Redbox for the latest new release movies at a great value, and our joint venture with Verizon will enable us to bring them even more value by offering expanded content offerings and greater flexibility for how and when they enjoy entertainment,” said Coinstar CEO Paul Davis. “This alliance is the result of a deliberate and strategic process to identify a partner who shares our commitment to delivering innovative solutions to consumers. We look forward to rolling out the shared benefits this venture will bring to consumers, retailers, and shareholders.”
“When you consider the core elements the parties bring to this venture – our powerful brands; our national rental kiosk footprint; our anytime, anywhere network presence; and our mutual commitment to customer-focused innovation – it’s clear that Verizon and Redbox are a powerful entertainment team,” said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon consumer and mass business markets.
“The joint venture will combine the accessibility and value of Redbox with Verizon’s vision for a borderless lifestyle – where consumers easily accomplish what they want or need to do, on their terms, through the power of the network,” added Mudge. “Together, we are erasing old technology boundaries, freeing people to spontaneously enjoy the entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the devices and media they prefer, at home or away.”
The companies say additional brand and product info will be revealed in the coming months.
This morning, parents everywhere are being forced to have tough conversations with their children after they were exposed to something so incredibly lewd during last night’s Super Bowl Halftime show that it’s downright un-American. If you watched the big game, you probably already know that I’m talking about our national nightmare – witnessing M.I.A. flip everyone the bird on (semi) live television.
NBC’s attempt to protect us from this horrible gesture failed, as their censoring system kicked in too late. Super Bowl viewers were treated to a blurred out screen a couple seconds following the middle finger incident. M.I.A. also appeared to say “sh*t,” but it was barely audible and overshadowed by the gesture.
NBC was quick to release a statement on the incident, calling it a “spontaneous gesture” similar to Janet Jackson’s famous wardrobe malfunction a few years back. “We apologize for the inappropriate gesture that aired during half-time. It was a spontaneous gesture that our delay system caught late,” they said.
The NFL’s statement was a bit sharper and put the blame on NBC’s broadcasting failures.
There was a failure in NBC’s delay system. The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans.
Continuing the mini war-of-words, NBC amended their statement to say that the NFL “hired the talent and produced the halftime show.”
It’s comforting to see that both the NBC and the NFL seem to be containing the outrage.
M.I.A.’s “flip-slip” is nowhere near as shocking as Janet Jackson’s nip-slip, but it definitely appears to be overshadowing Madonna’s performance. And M.I.A. has definitely succeeded in spurring on the country’s fake outrage machine.
If you’re shocked by a split-second middle finger then you obviously haven’t been paying attention to Bill Belichick’s wardrobe. Talk about offensive. And aren’t we missing a bigger point here? That trying to shock the world during the Super Bowl Halftime show after the legendary wardrobe malfunction is like trying to shock a SNL audience after Sinead O’Connor ripped up the picture of the Pope. You’re going to have to doing something more than flip the bird to really shake things up.
@DJD Doug DavisFailure of the night: M.I.A.’s attempt at being “edgy” while dressed as a cheerleader performing w/ Madonna & LMFAO on TV at the Superbowl8 hours ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto
Super Bowl ads are not only entertainment during the big game, they serve the higher (or lower) purpose of trying to sell you something. We may forget that these ads are doing that when we’re busy laughing at the newest Doritos’ advertisement or Volkswagen’s Star Wars tributes.
We put out a list of our top five best Super Bowl ads and the comments make it abundantly clear – the average consumer has vastly different notions of what makes these ads good. Taking a look at the Super Bowl admeter on USA Today provides a good measure of what consumers thought were the best ads. This is important to advertisers as the average consumer is there number one target. This should helps them refine their ads for the next year’s game.
What makes a good super bowl ad? What do you look for when you’re rating your personal favorites?Let us know in the comments.
Looking at the admeter, the top five ads all have a common theme – humor. People love to laugh. Ace Metrix seems to agree rating the top 10 most effective ads with the most effective being the ones based around humor.
The two ads that scored the highest tying for first place with a 671 Ace score was the M&M’s “Just My Shell” ad and Doritos “Sling Baby” ad. Filling the rest of the top five are humor-based ads that appeal to consumer’s base instinct to laugh.
The CEO of Ace Metrix, Peter Daboll, confirms this by saying to Forbes that humor was the most effective advertising strategy at this year’s Super Bowl which is confirmed by so many ads trying to be funny.
Daboll says that animals go hand in hand with humor as Coca Cola’s polar bear ads both ranked in the top 10. Doritos and Skechers both used dogs in their Super Bowl ads that catapulted both companies into the top 10 ads as well.
Not all ads are created equal though, and not all ads are intended effect to make people laugh. Serious ads that get the attention of viewers on something that they can relate to, such as the current financial landscape, can get people interested in products. Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime America” ad scored well at sixth place with an Ace score of 633. GE’s “Building Something Big in Louisville” got tenth place with an Ace score of 600.
Daboll calls it the “Made in America” ad that connects especially well with men. These kind of ads really “connect with the American people” in a way that the humor-filled ads cant. He goes on to say that these ads can “deliver a serious, emotive message and connect with viewers during the Super Bowl.”
He also points to the success of longer than usual ads that he calls “storytelling” ads. The Chrysler and Volkswagen ads both nailed this effectively by lasting more than the usual 30 seconds without losing interest of viewers.
Looking at the reaction to the ads across social media platforms reveals totally different results. While the H&M David Beckham underwear ad performed poorly with an Ace score of 450, the ad was the number one on social media platforms garnering a whopping 108,914 comments across all major social media platforms according to Bluefin Labs. Bluefin gathered their data in a 45-minute window after each ad aired to provide a fair estimate of how they do since the ads will most likely get more exposure over the coming days.
Compared to the Ace Metrix score, the Bluefin scores may be less effective as they just measure the comments. Comments can be negative and negativity usually outperforms anything else when it comes to online comments. Still, bad press is better than no press so H&M can take that as a sign that at least people were talking about their ad even if they didn’t like it. Unruly research shows brand recommendation as being an effective tool and social media provided that during the Super Bowl.
There is a third metric to consider when rating these ads’ effectiveness. After last year’s Volkswagen ad that premiered before the game garnered more than 90 million views over the past year, other advertisers wanted to cash in on that exposure. Honda’s Ferris Bueller ad has gotten over 18 million views on YouTube since its release with Volkswagen’s new Star Wars ad getting over 17 million views. Both ads used a teaser that led up to the actual ad that boosted their effectiveness.
AutoTrader and Edmunds.com both showed an even newer form of ad effectiveness as well through search and Web traffic. They rated auto ads by how much search and Web traffic they received during the game confirming that ads don’t necessarily have to be crowd pleasers to be big winners. While AutoTrader’s graph shows that search for vehicle models boomed during their respective advertisements; Edmunds.com’s research shows Web traffic to a specific model increased dramatically once its ad aired.
AutoTrader and Edmunds clash with the Ace Metrix numbers as well. Ace is showing that Fiat, while getting the most Web traffic according to Edmunds.com, was seventh in overall auto ad effectiveness.
Once again, as evidenced by our own picks, Super Bowl ads are different for everybody. It’s becoming harder and harder for businesses to pinpoint exactly what ads were effective or not. There are so many metrics and scores that advertisers can go off of that it makes it hard to tell where a company went wrong. While the Ace score can be a good indicator, other ad watch groups show that social media can go in the completely opposite direction.
It doesn’t seem like there’s any one way to really tell whether or not an ad was effective at this year’s Super Bowl. The best bet is to use the USA Today admeter as it’s directly from consumers voting on the ads they liked and combine that with the results from ad firms like Ace Metrix and Bluefin.
With so many different metrics to choose from, should advertisers look to all of them or stick to traditional metrics like Ace?Let us know in the comments.
As a final piece of wisdom, almost all studies confirmed that sexy just doesn’t really work unless you’re David Beckham. Sorry, GoDaddy, maybe you should try something else next year.
Take a look at our picks below and compare them to the researched best picks. There is a massive difference in opinion here, but it serves to show that Super Bowl ads are completely subjective and tastes change. While humor remains a strong contender, what people find funny is going to change year after year. There may even be a year where viewers want more “storytelling” ads with a serious topic.
Our picks confirm what this research has shown us – one man’s, or ad firm’s, picks do not exclusively determine what the best ads are anymore.
Here’s our picks for the top five best Super Bowl ads in no particular order:
Pepsi’s ad seemed to please scoring a 628 Ace score. The ad nails all the important parts of a good ad – great celebrity casting, a fun premise and good music. Check it out to see if you agree.
Volkswagen made a lot of nerds happy last year with their Darth Vader kid ad. While this year’s ad may or may not match up to that, the ending featuring classic Star Wars characters comparing the ad to last year’s ad makes up for it. It received a 590 Ace score.
Audi made us laugh this year with their Vampire Camp ad that’s sure to strike fear into the hearts of night creatures everywhere. It received a 536 Ace score.
The ad for the The Voice makes a great first impression by being action packed and featuring one of the best Betty White cameos ever.
Rounding out the best, we have Doritos. Ever since they started to let their fans make the ads, they have consistently turned out fantastic Super Bowl ads. This year is no different. It received a 645 Ace score.
Now that the Giants have won the Super Bowl, we should be able to forge about Super Bowl rivalries, right? Not if Ford has anything to say about it.
You may have seen GM’s ad during the Super Bowl. It pokes fun at Ford owners’ inability to survive the apocalypse because one’s truck model definitely changes survival odds.
The ad pokes fun at Ford, but is it enough to get angry over? Ford thinks it is.
Ford told Reuters that they have the safer pickup truck so even without the poking fun, GM is just wrong. Well, GM is not going to pull the ad because it’s a good ad. Why pull an ad even if it makes your competitor look bad? That’s the point of an advertisement.
Ford says that they are going to fight the allegations that they make an inferior truck not in court, but in the ad space. They will protect their claim of having the best-selling truck for the past 35 years.
It’s nice to see competition in the ad space. Even if both companies come out looking all the more foolish for their jabs at each other, the consumer gets the hilarious attack ads they make.
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Mark Cuban, famed businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner, showed up at the Super Bowl in the best way possible – a Skechers ad.
The ad features a greyhound race with a bulldog wearing Skechers’ new shoes that allow it to beat the speedy dogs. While Cuban only shows up at the end, he fits right in as the dog’s owner.
I’m sure he’ll talk about the ad sooner or later on his blog. It’ll be interesting to see what he has to say about it.
Twitter loves the man and he received a largely positive response for his role in the ad.
WebProNews recently caught up with Gonzalez again to talk about this latest development. According to him, Netflix has to continue to focus on its content in order to effectively compete with Verizon and Redbox’s service.
