The 2012 Super Bowl has come and gone, while you’re left to clean up the beer cans, wash off that face paint, and get back to planning your next pivot. The game itself provided more than enough excitement, with the New York Football Giants eking out a win over the star-crossed Tom Bradys and Bill Belichicks. This year’s Big Game also marked the first time that a Super Bowl was streamed live, legally, and for free on the Interwebs. While online viewers met with a number of shortcomings, the streaming was — for the most part — a success. (Read our review here.)
The Super Bowl also proved to yet again be the catalyst of rabid activity on social media channels, especially Twitter, which, at its most active, saw more than 10,000 tweets per second. A record for sporting events (even though this record seems to be broken every three months.)
While some watch the Super Bowl for their love of a good game of pigskin, others flip on the game for the halftime entertainment or the slew of “creative” commercials airing for the first time in front of a ready-made audience of millions.
The ad content this year left much to be desired (in my humble opinion), though there were some highlights, like an appearance by some faces familiar to the tech industry, thanks to Best Buy’s spotlighting of a few mobile innovators, among them Philippe Kahn, Ray Kurzweil, Instagram Founder Kevin Systrom, and the guys behind Shazam, and Words With Friends, and so on.
Of course, in the wrap up of every Super Bowl, the people want to get a taste of which commercials were the most popular. This morning Hulu released its list of winners, and it looks like nostalgia took the blue ribbon. Of the ads that ran during game time, Honda’s “Matthew’s Day Off” (a Ferris Bueller tribute) just narrowly edged out Volkswagen’s “The Dog Strikes Back,” with the “most liked” ad on Hulu AdZone being Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” preview ad.
Below, you can find the top results across categories, including “Overall Most Liked Ads” and “Funniest Ads.” For more of Hulu’s categories, check out their release here.
Overall Most Liked Ads
1. Volkswagen: The Bark Side Teaser
2. Honda: Matthew’s Day Off — Extended
3. Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back
4. Skechers: GOrun Mr. Quiggly
5. Dannon Oikos: The Tease
6. Chevrolet: 2012
7. M&M’s: It’s That Kind of Party
8. Audi: Vampire Party
9. E*Trade: Fatherhood
10. Acura: Transactions — Extended
Funniest Ads
1. Acura: Transactions
2. Hulu Plus: Hulubratory
3. Chevrolet: Happy Grad
4. Honda: Matthew’s Day Off
5. Chevrolet: 2012
Of course, Hulu is not the only service/company to track this year’s most popular commercials. This morning, TiVo also shared it’s commercial results, which is of note as it claims to be the “only second-by-second audience research service to rank the top ten commercials based on actual commercial retention and viewership” relative to the Super Bowl’s viewership numbers. Interestingly, while many brands like to preview or tease their ads days before the Super Bowl actually airs, the top three did not preview their commercials online before the big game. Take that, Internet?
Though it may not come as a surprise, it’s disappointing not to see many tech companies (or tech-related ads) in either of these top ten lists, with the exception of Hulu and E*Trade. It seems that the Super Bowl came and went without the same controversy (or negative reaction) stirred up by GoDaddy, Salesforce.com, and Groupon last year, the former two ranking high in the “Most Disliked” category last year.
But, without further ado, here are the top ten according to TiVo:
1. Doritos: “Man’s Best Friend”
2. M&Ms: “Ms. Brown”
3. Doritos: “Sling Baby”
4. Pepsi: “King’s Court”
5. Volkswagen: “The Dog Strikes Back”
6. NFL New Fantasy Game: “Win a Million Bucks”
7. Acura NSX: “Seinfeld”
8. FIAT 500: “Supermodel”
9. Chevy Camaro: “Happy Grad”
10. E*Trade Baby: “Fatherhood”
What do you think? Weigh in with your favorites.
Addendum: For those paying attention, Yottaa has done a wrap up of all the which sites went down during the Super Bowl ad blitz. Coke took a hit, as did Acura and Act of Valor. Check out their blog post here.