The winner of the advertising Superbowl that took place on Sunday, February 7, that is. This is not just my opinion. Comments captured from the digital ether by Alterian SM2 give the Sunday night victory to Google’s “Parisian Love” spot that ran at the end of the third quarter (mashable.com has a summary of the results). Alterian SM2 looked at three measures for each of the 44 advertisers who aired commercials during the 2010 Superbowl: total mentions, reach, and sentiment. Google was the leader in mentions by a wide margin (almost 7,000 mentions, compared to 2,100 for the next highest ad–the Tim Tebow ad from Focus on the Family–and an average of just over 500 mentions for all advertisers). Google also came out ahead on Alterian’s Social Engagement Index (SEI), which weights the conversations by the popularity of the source. The SEI for Google’s spot was 1,703 (versus an average of 100 for all ads). Finally, Alterian weighted the SEI by sentiment to create a second index. Google came in second on this measure, behind Doritos (SSEI of 673 and 941, respectively, against an average SSEI of 100). It’s probably worth noting that Doritos ran three different ads during the telecast, against Google’s one spot, and these results do not separate out specific commercials.
Of course, not everyone who has expressed an opinion about the commercials aired during Superbowl XLIV put Google’s ad at the top. The spot was not, for example, among the “top 10″ Superbowl commercials listed at Fanhouse. But in it’s way, Google’s ad may be the best example of what advertising is supposed to do. Google’s dominant position in online search (and the revenues that search advertising generates) is under attack from Microsoft’s Bing, and Microsoft has been running ads showing how easy it is to use Bing to do things like find a dimly lit restaurant (apparently a plus for hungry vamps, if we take a recent ad literally). (more…)
