Brands Get Less Buzz From 'Mad Men' Premiere

It used to be that companies featured in Mad Men episodes would set off massive social media chatter and viral buzz. Last year, MediaPost reported that Heinz Ketchup saw its online "content consumption" jump by 25.7% between April 14 and 21, 2013 (as compared to April 6 through 13, 2012), after it was prominently featured in two episodes of the new season of "Mad Men," according to Kontera's Content Activation platform. 

Now, however, it seems viewers have lost their interest in discussing these featured advertisers, according to newly released research from Kontera, the analytics agency.

"It is evident that this episode of 'Mad Men' was less impactful from a brand perspective than previous Mad Men episodes, however, it's hard to tell at this point if this speaks to Mad Men's influence as a whole," says Ammiel Kamon, EVP of marketing, Kontera. "As the season continues, we will be able to have a better idea of how it compares to previous seasons in terms of brand impact."

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During the "Mad Men" season premiere, watchmaker Accutron was featured as a new account. In the show, Joan tried to persuade the new CMO of Butler Shoe Wear not to take his advertising in-house, while Ken Cosgrove was creatively challenged by Chevy/GM. 

Among these four advertisers, Accutron got the biggest "Mad Men"-related lift in real-time via Twitter, followed by Butler shoes which had 48% as many "Mad Men"-related mentions as Accutron, followed by Chevy and GM which had 19% and 14% as many real-time conversations around their "Mad Men" mentions, respectively.

Looking at next day consumption (Monday, April 14), Butler Shoes and Chevy didn't receive any significant consumption lift during the day. However, Accutron which was tied to the episode's big reveal, that Don was using Freddie Rumsen as a proxy to submit his pitches, did see a substantial lift.

There was no significant consumption around Accutron in the previous month. However, on April 14, 29% of all "Mad Men" consumption was Accutron-related. 

At the same time, the entire show experienced a drop in Twitter buzz as the episode didn't offer up anything particularly dramatic to discuss online, say fans. As such, the second-largest volume of tweets occurred around Neve Campbell's appearance, as Don Draper's probable new love interest.

Still, there is an argument to be made that viewers have shifted their focus entirely away from "Mad Men" to HBO's "Game of Thrones." Indeed, the season premiere of "Game of Thrones" on April 6 experienced 194% more viral chatter than the first episode of "Mad Men," airing April 13, reports Kontera. 

There were 19,000 Tweets around "Mad Men," while the episode aired, compared with 70,000 tweets during and immediately following "Game of Thrones."

3 comments about "Brands Get Less Buzz From 'Mad Men' Premiere".
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  1. Steve Sternberg from The Sternberg Report, April 16, 2014 at 3:33 p.m.

    This could be because less than 30% of Mad Men's audience is live.

  2. Lynsey Archibald from The NED Show, April 16, 2014 at 11:06 p.m.

    Steve is exactly right. Keep in mind the relationship of NetFlix and Madmen. Ratings for this season will be a gradual pickup as the audience goes on a Mad Man viewing binge on previous seasons they might have missed.

  3. Kevin Horne from Verizon, April 17, 2014 at 2:59 p.m.

    1) what in God's name is "next day consumption" ? ... 2) Should we be surprised that Big Data shop Kontera doesn't have this info in detail on its own website?

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