Super Bowl: No Blackout, Yet Another Twitter Record

Last year’s Super Bowl set the record for tweets, with 24.1 million tweets out on the social network over the course of the game. Many attributed that to the infamous blackout, and the several real-time marketing campaigns that ensued. However, that hypothesis seems to be undone as Super Bowl XLVIII generated 24.9 million tweets, while no culturally significant “event” occurred during the game. The highest peak was Percy Harvin’s 87-yard kickoff return in the third quarter, which generated 381,605 Tweets Per Minute; another high point was the halftime show. Another trend: ads featuring hashtags. This year, 58% of all ads during the game had affiliated hashtags, up from 50% last year. The data on advertisement engagement is still out, but it’s clear that Twitter remains the number one social network for the Super Bowl, and is indeed solidifying its position. 

Super Bowl & Social Media

As we’ve already seen with the Sherman incident, social media and the Super Bowl go hand in hand. As agencies think strategically about how to leverage that data, CrowdTap has just released a survey about social media users during the big game: the majority of viewers are going to record impressions on social media before, during, and after the game. 61% of those surveyed said that they’ll share ads on social media as well, and 41.2% said that they’ll be on social media the whole game. The social media of choice? Facebook: 55.8% say they’ll be primarily on the social network site. Most importantly: 59.1% say they’re interested in brands, while 46.8% say that brands they like will make announcements. Though it’s unlikely that advertisers will take these statistics into account this year, they point to a wide margin for success in getting campaigns to broad audiences quickly through digital means. The companies who leverage this potent interest will ultimately be the ones who come out successful.