• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, February 6, 2017

So what if Super Bowl LI didn’t really get started until the fourth quarter and kicked into high gear in overtime? Some advertisers appeared to benefit from the New England Patriots’ shocking inability to get on the scoreboard until super-late in the game.

For example, Snickers, one of my favorite bad-for-you snacks, created and broadcast its ad live in the third quarter. Now that, my friends, is real time. And Hyundai pulled out a remarkable real-time feat by actually filming its spot during the game and running it just after the final play. The automaker’s truly touching post-game ad used footage shot during the game at a U.S. military base overseas. The ad showed soldiers watching the ad and sharing in reunions with their families in real-time—a feat of virtual reality. The soldiers were completely surprised.

Venerable Tide even shot part of an ad that appeared as if it came directly from Fox's studio.

These are just a couple of high-profile examples of the creation of advertising in real time. Forget about months of planning.

Twitter kept track of what was happening in real time. There were 2.2 million tweets about Lady Gaga’s #PepsiHalftime show between 8:10 and 8:30 p.m, ET when the show was live, according to Twitter. Combining the tweets leading up to the show, during, and in the 10 minutes after, the total was 5.1 million tweets about the performance. Lady Gaga’s @LadyGaga Twitter handle was mentioned 2.1 million times between 7:50 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. ET. Go Gaga!

In total, Twitter reported that fans around the world sent more than 27.6 million tweets about #SB51 during the live telecast on @NFLonFOX. Twitter reported the top brands on its “Twitter Ad Bowl”:

1. Pepsi (@pepsi)
2. T-Mobile (@TMobile)
3. Avocados from Mexico (@AvosfromMexico)
4. Budweiser (@Budweiser)
5. Mr. Clean (@RealMrClean)
6. Audi (@Audi)
7. Skittles (@Skittles)
8. 84 Lumber (@84LumberNews)
9. Doritos (@Doritos)
10. Intel (@intel)

Naturally, many brands and Super Bowl fans, and even non-Super Bowl fans, took to Twitter.

A couple of brands extended their reach by tweeting to amplify their TV spots. For example, Budweiser tweeted about its ad: “This is the story of our founder and his pursuit of the American Dream. #ThisBudsForYou.”

And Audi, which sought to hammer home a message about equal pay for women, tweeted about its spot: “Progress is for everyone. At Audi, we are committed to equal pay for equal work. #DriveProgress.” AirBnB sought to convey a message of inclusion with: “AirBnB Acceptance starts with all of us. #weaccept.” The tweet was accompanied by an image of an Asian woman, a black man, and a Hispanic woman.

Talkwalker, a social data intelligence company, tallied up its data from Feb. 5 starting at midnight through 7 a.m. ET on Monday and found that Budwesier’s polarizing Super Bowl mention got the most mentions, with about 95,000 total on Super Bowl Sunday and into the early hours of Monday. However, it noted that not all the attention was positive, with the hashtag #BoycottBudweiser used over 8,000 times during the same period.

Coca-Cola came in second with more than 44,000 mentions with another politically relevant ad focused on the theme of acceptance. T-Mobile came in third with more than 43,000 mentions on a celebrity-focused ad featuring Justin Bieber.

Talkwalker said the biggest spike in brand mentions came before halftime from Avocados in Mexico when the brand launched its campaign tweeting out a recipe for its Big Game Party Dish as part of a sweepstakes. That drove more than 10,000 mentions in 15 minutes.

Some Super Bowl ads got political, and that led to chatter on social media. Not surprising. Talkwalker said five of the top 10 Super Bowl ads that generated the most discussion on social media and online had political elements, including No. 1 Budweiser, No. 2 Coca-Cola, No. 5 Audi, No. 6 84 Lumber, and No. 7 Airbnb. Trumpians take note.

Talkwalker noted that the biggest surprise was the 84 Lumber spot. Yes, an ad for a lumber company appeared in the top 10 ad mentions, with a controversial spot telling the story of a Mexican mother and daughter trying to get into America. The ad racked up more than 30,000 mentions during the evening. The combined views of 84 Lumber’s video on YouTube hit nearly three million, and one million views on its Facebook page. All this for a relatively unknown lumber company.

Using Talkwalker’s image recognition technology, the company monitored the prevalence of brand logos in posts and articles linked to the Super Bowl. The No. 1 logo was Pepsi, which carried mostly images of the Lady Gaga poster in its tweet. In second place was Google, which featured funny screenshots of people trying to understand what the Super Bowl is.  

Now let’s finish off the rest of the avocado dip.