So comScore Networks conducted a brand survey and found that Bud/Bud Light won the big ad bowl at Super Bowl XL.
According to comScore's "Brand Damage" survey, or "Brandage" as we like to
call it, 75 percent of the survey respondents recalled the beer brand's ads. That's pretty good.
Recall is critically important when some advertisers are spending upwards of $2 million per
30-second spot. The survey found that P. Diddy and Jackie Chan helped Pepsi/Diet Pepsi stay top-of-mind with 60 percent of viewers, while GoDaddy.com's spot racked up 53 percent viewer awareness
during the game.
The comScore survey found that viewers appreciated Bud/Bud Light's use of humor and special effects, and that 44 percent of respondents said the Bud and FedEx spots helped improve
the brands' images. On the other hand, Burger King and Emerald Nuts tied for the most negative brand perception, with 20 percent of viewers saying the spots run by these advertisers actually damaged
viewer perception of the brands.
Brand perception was split along gender lines for several advertisers. Slightly more than one third of men reported the edgy GoDaddy.com spot improved their image
of the brand, while 28 percent of female viewers found the ad damaging. The Gillette Fusion ads were found to be damaging by 15 percent of men, while 27 percent of male viewers said the ads improved
Gillette Fusion's image.
Dove's commercial promoting self-esteem in young girls as part of its "Campaign for Real Beauty" was a big winner, with 56 percent of female viewers saying it improved
their perception of the Dove brand and only 1 percent reporting that their perception was damaged.
As a measure of ad enjoyment, comScore asked viewers to select the ads they would like to view
again. As with awareness, Bud/Bud Light captured the top spot, with more than 50 percent of respondents reporting they would like to see the ads again. The FedEx cavemen spot was the second favorite
(28 percent), followed closely by Pepsi/ Diet Pepsi, which received 22 percent of the vote. Rounding out the top five favorite ads were Burger King (15 percent) and GoDaddy.com (14 percent).
Beyond brand awareness and brandage, comScore's also released information on which Super Bowl ad campaigns drove the most Web traffic. According to the study, conducted in the days leading up to
the game, comScore found that more than 25 percent of Americans anticipated watching the ads as their favorite part of Super Bowl Sunday, and 72 percent said they planned to use the Internet on game
day.
The study found that GoDaddy.com racked up the most online hits, driven by viewers who enjoyed GoDaddy's Super Bowl spot that ended in a near "wardrobe malfunction." Traffic to
GoDaddy.com surged more than 1500 percent on Super Bowl Sunday compared to the average of the four previous Sundays, racking up 439,000 unique visitors for the day. The second best traffic spiker was
Budweiser.com, which saw traffic increase more than 500 percent on game day. ComScore found that traffic to Pizzahut.com, driven by Pizza Hut's spot for the Cheesy Bites pizza, increased only 123
percent. This is too bad, since, as we noted on Monday, the site is fun and engaging.
The comScore research found that several advertisers saw traffic to their Web sites spike within minutes
after their TV spots aired. ComScore analyzed traffic levels to major advertisers' sites in 30-minute intervals throughout game day compared to the average half hour during that day, and found that
GoDaddy.com's racy ads sent site traffic soaring 991 percent following the first airing of the "strap" ad. When aired again during the second half of the game, traffic to GoDaddy.com increased a
staggering 1148 percent. Now that's a spike.
Budweiser's constant ad presence was reflected through traffic at Budweiser.com. Within approximately 30 minutes of the company's first ad, traffic
to its site increased by 81 percent. As the ads continued to air, site traffic continued to rise, eventually reaching a 195 percent increase from the average.
Pepsi's ad featuring P. Diddy
pushed traffic up more than 100 percent to brownandbubbly.com after its airing. A short time later, traffic to the site increased 274 percent when Pepsi aired a second ad featuring Jackie Chan.
In addition, portals saw nice traffic gains on Super Bowl Sunday, with Yahoo Sports enjoying a 56 percent increase in traffic compared to previous Sundays. FoxSports.com saw a 45 percent
increase; AOL Sports, 33 percent; SI.com, 32 percent; and ESPN, 26 percent.