• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 7, 2006

As the ad industry spent yesterday digesting the Super Bowl spots and discussing favorites and failures, three marketers--Anheuser-Busch, FedEx, and Ameriquest--emerged as big winners.

A-B had the two most popular spots in USA Today's rankings, while FedEx's "Caveman" finished first in polls conducted by both The Wall Street Journal and Spotbowl.com, and Ameriquest had the two most-replayed spots among TiVo users.

A-B's "Secret Fridge" spot for Bud Light and Budweiser's "Clydesdale" finished first and second in the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter. Those spots also finished in the top 5 in the Journal and Spotbowl.com rankings. But the spots didn't seem to resonate as much among TiVo users, with "Secret Fridge" finishing as the 10th most-replayed ad and "Clydesdale" failing to make the top 10.

FedEx's "Caveman" spot, illustrating how the delivery company could have improved prehistoric life topped the Journal and Spotbowl.com polls, finished third in the USA Today rankings and was the fourth most-replayed spot in TiVo homes.

Ameriquest's two humorous spots ("Friendly Skies" and "That Killed Him") showed people in situations that were easily misunderstood--a metaphor for the mortgage company as willing lender because it doesn't rush to judgment--and were the two most-replayed spots in TiVo homes. "Our annual analysis of Super Bowl commercials shows once again that if you want to get the audience's attention during the game, you've got to get them laughing," said Katie Ho, TiVo's vice president of consumer marketing.

Ameriquest's spots didn't perform as well in the USA Today and Journal polls, although they were still among the leaders. In the Spotbowl.com poll, "That Killed Him" finished 10th, but "Friendly Skies" was down the list.

Other strong performers included Sierra Mist and Sprint. Sierra Mist, which featured airport security officials taking a man's bottle, finished fourth in the USA Today rankings and cracked the TiVo top 10. And Sprint's spot, where a man uses his cell phone as a weapon, climbed to third in the Journal rankings.

Some losers included Cadillac and its grandiose spot placing one of its vehicles in a fashion show, which finished in USA Today's bottom five and barely registered in the Journal poll. Gillette finished dead last in the USA Today tally, and also was a blip in the Journal poll.