This year auto brands, animals and celebrities dominated Super Bowl advertising, with six out of the top 10 improving brands auto brands.
With multiple spots in the game, Toyota’s significant investment seems to have paid off, receiving the largest lift amongst all advertisers. Especially impressive given the clutter of auto advertisers, the Toyota ads appear to hit home with their mix of sentiment and comedy—with their ‘Reinvention’ spot featuring the new Camry getting the most kudos.
Becoming a staple in the Super Bowl ad line-up, Hyundai autos beat a cheetah in a race and save a mentors life all while demonstrating horsepower and luxury. The brand benefited with a 14 point increase, almost doubling their pre-Super Bowl Buzz rating levels
Super Bowl viewers were introduced to the sixth and newest M&M spokesperson - Ms. Brown (Vanessa Williams), and their new slogan “Not your average chocolate”. BBDO and Mars were rewarded with the largest non-auto Buzz lift amongst all advertisers. With this recent increase, M&Ms has the highest overall Buzz ratings of the entire group of advertising brands.
Regis Philbin came out of retirement to participate in the cola - wars with a rogue CokeZero employee. Pepsi Max is the preliminary winner, with a significant 11 point boost 2 days post Super Bowl
Acura’s first foray into the big game, saw Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno haggle with an ‘average-Joe’ for the opportunity to purchase the latest Acura model…with Leno, the Average Joe, Acura and rp& (Acura’s agency of record) winning out.
Kia, whose lift of 8 points so far just misses the threshold for statistical significance, ran only one spot in this year’s Super Bowl touting “A dream car for real life.” Kia’s lift has taken Buzz scores to their highest levels since we began tracking the brand at the beginning of 2010.
Volkswagen was so successful with the “Darth Vader kid” in last year’s Super Bowl, they reprised the theme for 2012 this time trading out a cute child for a cute dog. Volkswagen Buzz scores are already higher than they ever reached after the 2011 Super Bowl, and approach their all-time high levels.
Bud Light ran multiple spots during the Super Bowl, the first of which showcased the release of their new product Bud Light Platinum in a futuristic spot touting the new beer’s top-flight taste. One of Bud light’s most notable spots featured a rescue dog named Weego, who is trained to retrieve Bud Light anytime anyone utters Bud Light’s trademark phrase, “Here We Go.”
Just like in 2011, Dorito’s incorporated a dog into one of its Super Bowl spots, with this year’s spot incorporating some tongue in cheek humor as a dog bribes his owner with bags of Dorito’s to overlook the dog’s role in the disappearance of the family’s cat. The other Dorito’s spot featured a baby flying through the air to snatch a bag of Dorito’s from a teasing kid.
For Honda Matthew Broderick / Ferris Bueller substitutes his best friend’s father’s sports-car for a Honda CRV and plays hooky from work in this ad. Generating significant pre-Super Bowl buzz with a teaser of the spot, Honda brand ratings improve nearly 7 points this week to round out the top 10 improvers 2 days post-Super Bowl.
