Ah, the day after the Super Bowl. Time to reflect on the advertising hits and misses. But how do you quantify success? (Or failure.) USA Today provided about 300 select viewers in Oregon and Virginia “ad meters” for rating commercials in real time. Of course, we also saw  a wide variety of web-based polls open to all. Annually, TiVo takes the unique approach of analyzing ad success based on a sampling of DVR interaction – pauses, replays, etc. In addition to providing a top ten list of commercials, they’ve identified the top five moments per half:

Click to enlarge

After speaking with TiVo today, I’ve gotten a bit more insight into their second-by-second analysis from Todd Juenger, VP of the Audience Research and Measurement unit. The line above charts viewership in TiVo terms, and is cumulative based on how many times video is watched – taking into account those rewinds, on top of straight up viewing. The spikes clearly indicate areas of interest and total viewership seemed to have increased as the game progressed. We surprised Todd by actually focusing on the football towards the end as Cards staged a comeback: “Historically, the commercials always get highest viewership spikes, from rewinding and multiple views. The fact that the 5 highest viewership moments in the 2nd half were all game related, not commercials, is remarkable.” So, was the game that good or were the commercials that lame?

Me, I can’t say I loved any of the commercials. However, the pair I immediately recalled today, beyond the movie trailers, were the Doritos and Cheetos spots. I’ve been known to consume more than my fair share of junk food, although both ads were memorable for other reasons. The Cheetos ad was both amusing and somewhat creepy – think the Burger King. Not to mention I haven’t seen Chester the Cheetah in over a decade. (“It’s not easy being cheesy.”) And who doesn’t want to smash things at work? Which is why I found the Doritos Crystal Ball ad entertaining. As it turns out, the commercial wasn’t even developed by a pricey advertising firm. As far as misfires, the Sobe Lizard football ballet was a nonsensical disaster. And there’s probably a large contingent of television owners that Vizio didn’t connect with utilizing a condescending ‘you spent to much’ pitch.

In the recycling of tech category, DreamWork’s Monsters vs Aliens commercial and Sobe’s ballet were both presented in 3D. We don’t feel like we got much of a return on investment, given the time spent tracking down glasses and then cutting them out. In fact, while the movie looks cute, I’d rather catch it unencumbered by cardboard glasses and 3D effects that really didn’t seem to add much to our enjoyment. For compelling 3-D experiences, I’ll continue to stick with the Orlando theme parks. Continue Reading…