The Super Bowl is, by definition, a battle to end all battles, a testosterone-soaked faceoff of mythic proportions.
Or, it’s an excuse to get together with friends, swap recommendations about that year’s crop of commercials, and to overindulge in food and beer.
For millennials, the annual game is all about sharing – food, opinions and a good time.
A survey of 502 Americans across the country, sponsored by IZEA, found that a third of respondents – 54 percent male and 70 percent age 18 to 29 – mainly defined Super Bowl Sunday as “a family gathering.” And with over half of them tracking the action on a computer during the game, the parallel conversation via social channels was actually more compelling than the stream of commercials they were simultaneously watching on television.
About 65 percent of the respondents said they were more inclined to watch Super Bowl ads recommended by friends than ads promoted by celebrities (5 percent) or by companies (5 percent). And during the game itself, 24 percent indulged in a personal form of instant replay, watching commercials again on their mobile devices. In fact, digital versions of Super Bowl ads won over 330 million views within 24 hours of the game.
Adweek reported that a third of those views were claimed by one Snapchat video for Gatorade, which showed Serena Williams, the tennis player, doused by the orange sports drink. And Esurance leveraged its Super Bowl ad hashtag, #esurancesweepstakes (intended to pull consumers to a $250,000 sweepstakes site), driving 2.48 million tweets.
Sharing isn’t always sweet. Mountain Dew’s PuppyMonkeyBaby hybrid creature drew 65,000 social mentions during the game, nearly four times its nearest competitor (#Pokemon). The Frankencritter was also a favorite in the IZEA survey. But marketing experts commented that the mixed reviews for the combination animals might have undermined Mountain Dew’s positive lift – unless the drink brand’s goal was just to get people sharing, regardless of what they actually said.
