For the last few years (see 2012 data). This analysis is a bellwether on how brands will spend on an integrated experience for the year. Overall, we saw brands still hold onto corporate websites, although a big jump in hashtag usage, and decline in Facebook integration.
2012-2013 Superbowl Ad Tech Integration
| Tech Integration Type | 2012 | 2013 | Percent Change |
| Corporate URL/Microsite | 58% | 46% | -12% |
| 11% | 7% | -4% | |
| Hashtag | 7% | 38% | +31% |
| Shazam | 6% | 2% | -4% |
| Total Ads with Integration | 68% | 75% | +7% |
Integration to reach the Dynamic Customer a top priorty for brands.
Brands know they must integrate their brand experience on multiple experiences and apply real time interaction, Altimeter’s research theme the Dynamic Customer Journey explores this challenging trend.. Adobe shared with me that: “Visits and page views to companies that advertise on TV during the Super Bowl show a 20% increase in visits on the day of the game and maintain higher than average traffic for a week following the game.” This integrated approaches means longer adoption over the 30 seconds. Top findings include:
- 75% of Brands integrate second screen experience, up 7%. Overall, 75% of brand ads integrated social, mobile, hashtags, or apps in their $4m, 30 second spot (that’s $133k per second), this is up from 68% integration in 2012. This second screen promotion extends engagement to their websites and social sites, fostering a further integrated experience. Of note, Oreo was able to quickly create ads on social channels that tapped into the unexpected blackout, showing their advertising and marketing prowess, cross-screen. Expect this growth rate to only continue in 2014, as ads should cross the 80-90% integration rate.
- Hashtags, presumably aimed for Twitter, dominate over Facebook. Hashtag integration in ads dominated the airtime, with 38% of ads including Hashtags in visual display on ads, up 31% out of a total of 64 ads. Twitter, a media-centric, network serves better for real time interactions of live events, rather than Facebook, which may spur deeper engagement through interactive media, social interactions, and applications. Brand advertisers chose to integrate Facebook URLs or Icons a mere 7% down 4% from 11% in the prior year. Facebook’s limited hashtag search restricts how brands can identify and engage in trends beyond a specific page. We observed that Calvin Klein trended on Twitter, at US level.
- Niche Players Come and Go: Shazam down, Instagram Enters. The social media space is littered with startups that come and go. And while Shazam showed some promise in last years 2012 superbowl, their brand adoption rate decreased significantly. For the first time, Instagram made an entry with Oreo, and attracts thousands of followers. While Shazam fell in adoption, QR codes and SMS messages were not present at all in 2013, despite a few experiments in prior years.
Summary: Expect Hashtags to Overake Corporate Websites in 2014
Brands prefer deeper integration on their own website and leverage over-arching hashtags for events –beyond pointing to Facebook. Isolated Facebook falls in favor for these real time events, but likely provide a deeper brand engagement beyond the immediate event. While individual URLs to microsites and corporate accounts maintain dominance, Hashtags, which can be used in a variety of social networks, are permeable to multiple networks, extending broader engagement. Expect that the 2014 Superbowl favors hashtags over corporate URL usage.
Methods: Altimeter tallied integration in Ads from kickoff to end of game, of major ads on TV. We did not include ads involved in specific CBS promotions, instead brands that had paid airtime to reach this network. And yes, this means we maintained sobriety in the name of research.
Related Resources
- This data was shared in SF Gate
- Are Superbowl ads worth it? Here’s the comparative spend in other digital channel
- NetBase has sentiment analysis in social channels of ads, GoDaddy hated.
- More discussion on my Facebook post on this topic.
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud has activity measurements and sentiment analysis
- Attensity shares sentiment analysis
I found very few of the hashtags memorable. #MiracleStain from Tide was the only one I clearly remember today…and I was looking for them. Of course, being a Ravens fan probably hindered my #BrandBowl participation.
Great insights. Just a heads up that you might want to correct the percentage change of corporate URLs/Microsites… 🙂
am I reading this wrong? It seems like if anything this was a major drop in corporate URL usage?
Corporate URL/Microsite
58% (2012)
46% (2013)
+8%
“And yes, this means we maintained sobriety in the name of research.” Love it. And good information, although I’ll be surprised if hashtags really do overtake websites next year.
“And yes, this means we maintained sobriety in the name of research.” Love it. And good information, although I’ll be surprised if hashtags really do overtake websites next year.
“And yes, this means we maintained sobriety in the name of research.” Love it. And good information, although I’ll be surprised if hashtags really do overtake websites next year.
Sure, brands appearing to take one side may see a blip of backlash. But this is surely the most discussion around laundry detergent in quite some time. They most likely thought the positive outcome was worth the potential risk.
thanks for the analysis and the lists. I REALLY appreciate that you would watch the SuperBowl
Jeremiah thank you for this great post on the future #hashtags. We are thrilled to see this data and have been building our oneQube platform based on your post. We see the hashtag as the atomic element of relevance in real-time marketing. It holds together rea-time micro communities and content around macro events. When you run analytics against them you can market and build audience in real-time. Heres an example of hashtag analytics run against the #SuperBowl & Brands hashtags running during the game http://internetmedialabs.com/the-hashtag-bowl-2
Look forward to your thoughts and insights..