• by Wayne Friedman , February 5, 2009

The two most-viewed Super Bowl commercials: Bud Light Lime and one from GoDaddy.com, both of which ran in the fourth quarter.

Super Bowl marketers have been mulling over many metrics during the last several days, but the basic one is viewership. Nielsen Media Research says each of those ads was seen by 103.2 million people, during a period where the game was close and near its end.

Bud Light Lime spots feature a man walking in the snow with a six-pack, and everywhere he goes, things turn summery. The GoDaddy big-scoring spot, one of two commercials that were bought, was its "Enhanced" ad in which a congressional-looking hearing grills race car driver Danica Patrick, who says traffic on her site was enhanced by using a GoDaddy Internet domain.

Both commercials ran at 9:54 p.m. EST, and earned a 45.3 household rating--reaching a top 103.2 million viewers. Overall, for the game itself, 106 million viewers tuned in between 9:45 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET.

Previously, Nielsen reported that the Super Bowl XLIII featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Arizona Cardinals was the most-viewed game of all time: an average of 98.7 million viewers. In looking at total audience, with people watching at least six minutes of the game, the Super Bowl rose to 151.6 million people.

Nielsen did note other metrics for Super Bowl spots. The best-liked and most-recalled ad was one for Budweiser where a men plays fetch with a Dalmatian--and gets a Clydesdale jealous. That ad was also the best-liked among females.

For men, the best-liked commercial was the Doritos spot where every time a man bites into a chip something happens--sometimes good, sometimes bad. In the end, the man gets hit by a bus.

Nielsen says the top overall brand in terms of in-game product placement was Gatorade, which got 191 exposures over a duration of 704 seconds. No. 2 was Reebok at 282 exposures and 501 seconds. In third place was Motorola, with 165 exposures and 336 seconds.