The #AdScrimmage 2013 winner and the top Super Bowl ad hashtags

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Forty-six Super Bowl ads competed for bragging rights. One clear champion has emerged. The ad with the most votes in the second annual Twitter #AdScrimmage is Samsung’s “Next Big Thing.”

The commercial stars actors Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd brainstorming with a @SamsungMobileUS exec about a Super Bowl ad concept featuring LeBron James (@KingJames). LeBron actually makes a cameo on a tablet. It’s all very meta.

 

For those of you keeping track, it’s a repeat victory for @SamsungMobileUS who also scored the most #AdScrimmage votes last year for their big game ad, #VoteForNote. Congratulations on stealing the title from yourself, @SamsungMobileUS. We hope you’re going to Disneyland!

One key to @SamsungMobile’s second #AdScrimmage success: instantly mobilizing the Twitter fans of its celebrity spokesperson after the spot aired on television.

 

The brand also used Promoted Tweets to extend the reach of its two minute spot and promote its branded #AdScrimmage hashtag, #VoteTheNextBigThing. We like brands who like hashtags.

These brands round out the top five big game ads with the most #AdScrimmage votes:

More Super Bowl hashtag winners

Last year, one in five brands included a hashtag in their Super Bowls ads. This year, 50% of the 52 national ads during the game featured hashtags. Clearly, an increasing number of today’s marketers understand that half of Twitter’s users use the platform while they watch TV, which means Twitter can keep the conversation around an ad going long after a 30-second spot is over.

In fact, on-air hashtags featured in this year’s ads were mentioned 300,000 times on Sunday alone. That’s a +273% increase over last year of ad-related hashtag mentions on game day. So what ad hashtags got people tweeting while they watched the game?

The #CrackinStyle ad by Wonderful Pistachios (@getcrackin) sparked the most Tweets immediately after airing. The ad stars Korean viral sensation Psy and racked up over 13,000 Tweets mentioning the hashtag in one minute. Apparently, people still love watching him get his ‘Gangnam Style’ on.

 

Speed Stick (@SpeedStick) highlighted the most, um, explicit of all hashtags. In its #HandleIt spot, @SpeedStick features a man getting caught “panty-handed” at the laundromat with a woman’s underwear. The voiceover invites viewers to “tweet your #HandleIt moment and also displays the call to action in prominent text on the screen. @SpeedStick retweeted responses that poured in during the game.

 

The most tweeted hashtag in an ad during the game: #Clydesdales in the “Brotherhood” ad by Budweiser (@Budweiser) with over 58,000 mentions. As in past years, the Super Bowl ad featured @Budweiser’s iconic horses and opened with the birth of a baby Clydesdale. The ad tugged at the heartstrings with the story of a lasting bond between a man and his horse set to the music of Fleetwood Mac.

 

The ad ended with an adorably engaging call to action for consumers: submit names for the baby horse featured in the ad using the hashtag #Clydesdales. @Budweiser received over 60,000 name suggestions in 24 hours. The winner: Hope.

 

So many people tweeted name suggestions that Budweiser decided to name a second foal. He’s the man.

 

Congrats to all the big game advertisers.

Posted by
Josh Grau (@grauface)
Head of Brand Strategy