Super Bowl Sunday: From Commercials To Champions

So much happened during Super Bowl LVI, on February 13, 2022, that each one could have its own article! From the star-studded halftime show to the middling commercials and the game itself, there was plenty for fans to talk about on social media.

The game itself was a close-scoring affair, and it would ultimately come down to the last minute – just like many of the playoff games leading up to it. While the Cincinnati Bengals had managed to go ahead with a score of 20-16, the Los Angeles Rams steadily made their way down the field, managing the clock well and taking advantage of several penalties against Cincinnati to inch closer to the endzone and keep the drive alive. A Rams touchdown with 1:25 remaining pushed the home team ahead and would ultimately be the nail in the coffin for Cincinnati, launching the Rams to their first Super Bowl championship in 22 years.

Not surprisingly, there was a massive amount of online dialogue throughout the game. On February 13 alone, there were more than 2.73 million mentions of the Super Bowl! Just over 2.07 million of those came from Twitter, with Reddit and news outlets rounding out the top three content sources. Discussion ramped up as the game started, spiking around 8 p.m. ET – right around the halftime show – and again near 10 p.m. ET – as the stressful last few moments of the game concluded and the Rams became champions.

The United States was home to most of the traffic, with more than 851,000 mentions, but our North American neighbors also chimed in, with more than 42,000 mentions from Canada and more than 33,000 from Mexico. Brazil also comprised a significant slice of the mentions, on par with Canada with just over 42,000 as well.

Many notable individual players also drove a lot of online traffic. Let’s take a look at the stat breakdown:

• Joe Burrow (QB, Cincinnati): 22/33, 263 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, sacked 7 times. 247.2K mentions – including a top theme our social listening software categorized as “Genuinely Concerned For Joe Burrow’s Life.”

• Matthew Stafford (QB, Los Angeles): 26/40, 283 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT, sacked 2 times. 107.8K mentions – spiking only around 10 p.m. ET after most of the game was already over but Stafford’s best plays were yet to come.

• Cooper Kupp (WR, Los Angeles): 8 receptions for 92 yards, 2 TD. Named Super Bowl MVP. 146.3K mentions, nearly 80% of which were positive as he turned in a truly phenomenal performance.

• Tee Higgins (WR, Cincinnati): 4 receptions for 100 yards, 2 TD. 29.9K mentions. Lots of the discussion focused around a controversial play in which Higgins ran in a touchdown after grabbing Jalen Ramsey’s facemask, with no flag on the play.

• Odell Beckham, Jr. (WR, Los Angeles): 2 receptions for 52 yards, 1 TD. OBJ left the game in the second quarter after suffering a knee injury, now reported to be ACL damage. 69.2K mentions. The praying hands emoji was frequently used following his injury.

• Ja’Marr Chase (WR, Cincinnati): 5 receptions for 89 yards. 26.1K mentions. Other than his name, “wow” was the most frequently used word in content that mentioned Chase – enough said about his rookie year as a whole!

• Aaron Donald (DT, Los Angeles): 4 tackles, 2 sacks. 151.2K mentions. Retirement might be on the table for the defensive superstar, but much of the conversation agrees that if this was his last game, it was a last game for the ages.

But what about the rest of the night’s headlines? After all, many people who aren’t sports fans watch “The Big Game” to see the iconic commercials or halftime entertainment. Never fear; both those subjects sparked extensive discussion as well.

The halftime show was a star-studded event featuring many of the all-time greats of hip-hop and R&B, including Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, and Anderson .Paak. While halftime shows have become a constant game of one-upmanship, and they can never please every fan, social dialogue indicates that an impressive majority of viewers enjoyed the show – more than 75% of the sentiment was positive. Even those who aren’t hip-hop fans could surely appreciate the staging and entertainment value that went into the mini-concert. More than 922.2K mentions discussed the halftime show!

Lastly, how about those commercials? If you aren’t into cryptocurrency, you might have spent at least half of the commercial breaks perplexed – or even if you are, you may have been perplexed. Many commercials featured surreal, CGI-heavy scenes (you okay, Meta?) and celeb-packed rosters. Some of those guest pairings made sense – Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen, Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansen, Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton – and some did not, tapping marquee names without much connection to one another other than brand affiliation (Nissan, for one, mixing “Schitt’s Creek” stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara with Marvel actors Brie Larson, Danai Gurira, and Dave Bautista).

Blockbusters like Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Moon Knight, as well as the latest Jurassic Park/World installment and Jordan Peele’s Nope also garnered plenty of views.

How did that translate to social media? Hootsuite kept an eye on “The AdBowl” throughout the night, taking a look at some of the heaviest hitters before the game:

Here’s a quick look at those same top 10 brands during and after the game (from 6:00 p.m. ET through midnight ET on Feb. 13):

• NFL: 705,620 mentions

• PepsiCo: 105,486 mentions

• Avocados from Mexico: 2,394 mentions

• FTX: 55,333 mentions

• Amazon: 332,323 mentions

• Busch Light: 1,118 mentions

• DraftKings: 2,693 mentions

• Squarespace: 5,303 mentions

• Meta: 53,581 mentions

• Crypto.com: 2,663 mentions

Our search parameters may be a little different than Hootsuite’s, but there’s no doubt that these advertisers got their money’s worth!

Original story on the SMLC Blog.