Super Bowl Ads by the Numbers: Planters Wins Big, Amazon Flops?
A Praytell Strategy POV
Discussions about Super Bowl ads take over the marketing world in the weeks around the actual game, with critics commenting on their cultural impact, brand positioning and reception by marketers and muggles alike.
We at Praytell wanted to dive a bit deeper and check out what data we could glean from public sources to identify which brands generated a sustained lift beyond the immediate chatter their ads generated. We looked at changes in search volume, social followers and Twitter mentions for 13 ads considered the ‘best’ by industry publications. Here is what we found, with some unexpected winners and losers.
While all brands except Amazon experienced an increase in search volume after the Super Bowl, Planters, Michelob Ultra and TurboTax were the biggest gainers.
Meanwhile, Amazon, despite critical acclaim, went in the other direction as searches for ‘Amazon’ and ‘Alexa’ dipped slightly between the end of January through the Super Bowl into early February. See their ad here.
In an absence of Alexa sales data before and after the ad aired, we can support our conclusion that Amazon’s ads did not create the same uptick in consumer interest by simply looking at the volume of social mentions during the game weekend, below:
What really stands out here is the success of Planters’ Mr. Peanut brand mascot stunt. By each metric we surveyed, Planters was the unequivocal winner of this year’s Super Bowl ads. The volume of conversation around the brand and its mascot (RIP and mazel tov) was greater than all the other brands combined. The buzz translated into a significant increase in social followers:
Planters’ #RIPeanut and #babynut campaign was a full-court omnichannel press, with devotional candles memorializing the mascot sent to reporters, fan giveaways, and activations at the Nutmobile. They created enough attention that Mr. Peanut appeared in a New Yorker cartoon and was featured on Saturday Night Live. It is easy to see the influence of Baby Yoda, a popular meme in prior months, on this campaign. It got additional media coverage for being paused after Kobe Bryant’s death. Check out Planters’ pregame ad here and the #babynut ad here.
Other winners include Doritos by social mentions and Michelob Ultra by search volume. Doritos featured a popular celebrity, Lil Nas X, who is very active on social himself and undoubtedly drove lots of mentions. Michelob Ultra went with the safe and standard beer ad route, featuring mainstream celebrities and lighthearted humor which clearly still works.
Most of the ads we looked at were pre-released, which is a standard practice and did not seem to have a major impact. In general, it appears that the ads which referenced or were influenced by Internet culture stood out the most, over the more standard mainstream culture ads that are generally the same each year. As Millennials and Gen Z continue to take over the economic and cultural life of America, it is no wonder that advertising catering to digital-native culture will perform better than the tropes appealing to previous generations.
Questions about this or other Praytell research? Check out our website or email us at hello@praytellagency.com.
Read More: The Patriots & The NFL on Social Media
