Super Bowl Ad Ratings: USA Today, Nielsen, MediaCurves

OK, Last word on Super Bowl 42 XLII Commercials this year (one week after the game) comes from the ratings services, which turned out to have very different results and to prove how much polls and statistics can vary. The most visible ratings came from USA Today, which awarded the top spot to the Budweiser "Rocky" send-up starring Hank the Clydesdale, who fails to make the team, then trains with a dog for a year and makes the beer wagon team next year. That spot is featured below in another post.

The next rating came from Nielsen and also gives their number one nod to Budweiser. But Nielsen also rates ads on TV viewership numbers and ranks them according to which was most seen - they give that honor to the Victoria's Secret ad with Adriana Lima, which ran in the fourth quarter in the second to last ad slot and they claim was seen by 103.6 Million viewers (and an additional 980,000 times on MySpace, 520,000 times on AOL, 417,000 times on YouTube.

Victoria's Secret Super Bowl Commercial with Adriana Lima

Super Bowl Commercials

Then comes Media Curves, which added an odd element of second-by-second emotional interest to their ratings and award the top slot to the Fedex Carrier Pigeons spot. That link shows you a graph of viewer interest on top of the ad as it plays, but that seems a bit silly to me. People who voted at MediaCurves liked Fedex more than Adriana Lima or Hank the Clydesdale because they were more emotionally engaged? Which emotions? Fear of flapping feathers and pigeon poop from both the normal dirty birds in that shipping department or the giant dirty birds outdoors wreaking havoc on the city and trashing the shipping managers car? Hmmmm. (AOL gave the top slot to Hank the Clydesdale again, and gave the Fedex spot position #10 in their top ten list!) Here's that Fedex Ad:

Fedex Super Bowl Ad: Carrier Pigeons Bad Choice for Shipping

Watch Superbowl Commercials.

Very interestingly, you can also judge the commercials at each of the places they are housed on the web to see most popular ads by number of views. That honor appears to go (as of this writing) to the Bud Light "Ability to Breathe Fire" ad, which has been viewed over 4 million times at AOL (Total ad views 10.5 million), 1.7 million times at MySpace (Total ad views 34.7 million views) and (only) 372,000 times on YouTube, where it barely ranks at all). But wait, there are different numbers of most watched at each of these places! Choose your audience carefully. (YouTube is set to announce their winner later on Tuesday February 12th, based on number of votes - will anyone still care then?) YouTube ranks the Naomi Campbell "Thrillicious" Dancing Lizards ad tops, with 965,000 views, topping all it's other super bowl videos by 200K or so. Hmmm. Thrillicious is in 5th place at MySpace - Here's that ad:

Sobe Life Water Super Bowl Commercial: Naomi Campbell

Super Bowl Ad Videos.

So when ranked by raw numbers I'll award top choice to "Ability to Breathe Fire" from Budweiser. Ranked by viewer emotions during viewing, I agree with the MediaCurves emotions rating, but only because I want to dive under a table to avoid the flying rats, er pigeons. When ranked by Underdog factor, I'll go with Hank the Clydesdale and the Rocky theme. When ranked by libido interest, I think Naomi Campbell wins for Sobe Life Water. When ranked by overall favorite, I'll fall back on my previous juvenile humor assessment and go with the Tivo most replayed rating which ranks the eTrade Talking Baby Spit-up spot.

eTrade Talking Baby Super Bowl Commercial: Baby Buys Stock

More Superbowl Commercial Videos

Not enough ratings for you? Here's a few more:

• Information week rates 49 of the Superbowl Ads
• MediaPost "Search Insider" reviews the Commercials
• Reprise Media Reviews the Bowl Ads
• Search Engine Watch SEO Review
• FoxSports gives us the 10 Worst Commercialsand 10 Best
• Slate asks "How Were the Super Bowl Ads?"
• New York Times Commentary on the Ads
• Chicago Tribune Opines, plus asks you to vote
• The Morning Call discusses National Organization for Women Ratings

Finally, for those of you who can't wait for next year to see what Super Bowl Ads, here's that MySpace Super Bowl Countdown Widget to take you into the 2009 Contest in Tampa Florida.

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Super Bowl Bonus: Budweiser Cut The Cheese Ad

Budweiser, in an attempt to draw more audience engagement around their Super Bowl Ads this year, created a *Bonus* "Secret Spot" which was available only to visitors who either participated in a text message poll from their mobile phones or filled out a ranking poll called "order the spots" on BudBowl.com> If you didn't do that on their site, here's a version you don't have to do anything else to see. I see why it didn't run at game time, since it would have suffered the same fate that GoDaddy did with the network censors. Poor taste, body humor. I had to do extra work to see this?

Tivo Users Loved Talking Babies Spitting Up in Bowl Ads

Tivo has now given us a better gauge of what SuperBowl Commercials viewers actually watch the most, rather than those they SAY they like the most. For the Tivo fans, excuse me while I tell the other 200 million uninitiated television watchers briefly about these magical machines. (Tivo users, skip down two paragraphs)

Tivo lets you pause live television for up to 30 minutes and go back and watch when you want to, then the thing you've heard most, lets you skip through anything you don't want to see, which for most of us is the commercials. So we Tivo lovers often stop live television to have a conversation with our spouse, use the restroom, make a sandwich, answer the doorbell or telephone... In short, we're not a slave to "Time" and can stop and start the television.

There is much more to Tivo, but that covers the only part I want to discuss here. Tivo users often rewind and rewatch things that interest them. It is very easy to do and so it becomes a habit to back up and watch something over again. Not only watch it over, but frame-by-frame if we choose - in slow motion or stop anywhere in freeze frame.

(Ok Tivo users, you can tune in again...) So Tivo Central can see user behavior, and while they anonymize it slightly, they know what everyone is watching, frame-by-frame, second by second and how many times something is watched. My wife looked at me sideways when I said the E-Trade ad of a talking baby spitting up after buying stock online was my favorite. I felt a bit childish, but now I see I wasn't alone. That was the most replayed ad on Tivo owners sets. Hah!

eTrade Talking Baby Super Bowl Commercial: Baby Buys Stock

More Superbowl Ads

Here's the Tivo list of most watched Superbowl Ads

1. E-Trade: “Baby Talks Demonstrates Easy Stock Buy Online” (spitting up)
2. Pepsi Co: “Every Sip Gets you Closer to Justin Timberlake MP3”
3. Doritos: “Mouse Trap - Giant Mouse Attack” (user-generated)
4. Coca-Cola: “James Carville and Bill Frist Jinx, Buy Me a Coke”
5. Ice Breakers Gum: “Carmen Electra and Spontaneous Woah!”
6. Bridgestone: “Deer in the Headlights, Alice Cooper, Richard Simmons”
7. Bud Light: “Cavemen Invent Wheel to Carry a Stone Cooler”
8. Vitamin Water: “Horse Race with Jockey Shaquille O'Neal”
9. Cars.com Plan B: “Witch Doctor Shrinks Car Salesman's Head”
10. Life Water: “Thriller Lizard Dance with Naomi Campbell”

Budweiser Super Bowl Ad: Rocky Theme Rated Best

There was a very understated Hyundai Genesis Superbowl commercial which said in its voice-over, while showing the new luxury car, "We don't know what the USA Today Admeter will say about this Ad on tomorrow, but we're pretty sure BMW, Mercedes and Lexus aren't gonna like it." Well now everyone knows what the USA Today Admeter thinks about the Hyundai Genesis commercial, as it ranked at #43 out of the total 55 commercial spots.

Pretty much as expected though the number one ad was the Budweiser "Rocky" send-up of Hank the Clydesdale, who after missing the Budweiser beer wagon team one year, goes into intense training with a dalmation as his personal trainer. You can see that ad (and all the others with ratings #1 through #55 at the USA Today Admeter page, titled "Budweiser's Dog and Pony Show" in a mocking tone about the number one ad. (Dalmation and Clydesdale, Dog & Pony -- Hmmm). Here's that ad if you missed it.

Budweiser Clydesdales Superbowl Ad: Hank the Clydesdale

Superbowl Ads

Audi's R8 Supercar Super Bowl Commercial - No

OK, for those of you who can't wait to see the Audi R8 Supercar, here's a sneak peek. Though this is NOT the Superbowl Commercial, which will be a play on the "Godfather" movie theme. This is an "assembly" time lapse starting from the frame up with a catch phrase, "The Slowest Car We've Ever Built" appearing at the end. ... History, experience, carefully assembled, etc. -

Ok, now 3 days after the fact, here's the real SuperBowl ad, realeased nowhere early, but now available everywhere. ;-)

 

Audi R8 Luxury Sports Car Super Bowl Commercial Ad

More Super Bowl Ads