Big Winners in the Super Bowl Commercial Game

CommercialsDid you see Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. dancing to the routine from “Dirty Dancing” last night during the Super Bowl’s commercial lineup? Granted, I did not watch the Super Bowl in its entirety, so I missed several of the commercials – but that one might have been my favorite.

I also enjoyed the marketing gusto behind the “It’s a Tide Ad” commercial. Did you have a favorite?

While the actual football game was exciting, the commercials were a mixed bag, with a few bright spots among some duds, per usual.

Forbes has a listing of the top commercial spots, as determined by a new startup that uses opt-in technology to measure actual eyes on the screen and viewer reactions:

TVision’s ranking system uses a score of 100 as a baseline, so numbers higher than 100 represent better than average performance. Here are the top 10 spots that got attention from viewers in the moment when they aired last night during the game. Note how different this list is from the spots that resonated most on social media or in earned media views online.

  1. Bud Light – Bud Knight – 130.8 
  2. E*Trade – This is Getting Old – 123.6
  3. Mountain Dew/Doritos – Doritos Blaze vs Mountain Dew Ice – 116.9
  4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout –  Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 114.2
  5. Avocados from Mexico – #GuacWorld – 113.7
  6. NFL – Touchdown Celebration – 112.4
  7. M&Ms – Human – 112.1
  8. Tide – It’s a Tide Ad –  111.1
  9. Netflix: The Cloverfield Paradox   – The Cloverfield Paradox – 110.9
  10. Amazon – Alexa Loses Her voice – 110.7

TVision also tracks a metric called the Smile Index, using data the observes the facial expressions of its opt-in panel to identify positive emotional responses. So which ads lit up the room? According to the data, it was…

  1. Bud Light –  120.2 on the Smile Index
  2. Avocados from Mexico –  118.8
  3. M&Ms –  117.8
  4. Netflix – Cloverfield – 117.2
  5. E*Trade – 115.2

Going Clean in Colorado

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper may have the right idea (as well as a fun name to say) regarding his campaign commercials in his bid to become Colorado’s next governor. While the ad doesn’t really say much about what he’ll do if elected, it is critical of negative campaigning and may resonate well with voters. The spot was recently featured on The Fix.

Health Care Messaging: They’re Buying; Are You Watching?

Tired of hearing health care messages during breaks in your favorite TV shows. Maybe that’s because more than $1 million dollars a day is being spent on such commercials.

According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, overall TV spending reached $110 million on Sunday. The breakdown is $47 million in favor of a health care overhaul, $32 million opposed to the reform efforts and the rest focused on general health care discussion.

Who’s spending the most? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (there is no official relationship between the U.S. and Indiana chambers; in fact, we support some of the principles offered by the national organization but are opposed to others) and AARP are at the top of the list.

With the debate continuing in Congress and President Obama making this his signature issue, expect the dollar outlays, the commercials (and just maybe the TiVo usage) to continue at high levels.