Who Won the Super Bowl Online Ad Game? It Depends Whom You Ask

When the Super Bowl was over, we knew immediately who won. Actually, we knew several minutes before it was over. But as for the second game of the evening—which brand had the top performing Super Bowl ad?—the results are less conclusive.

This year's ads focused on gentle humor and celebrity appearances, but felt tame compared to those from previous years. Perhaps that's because brands wanted to avoid a costly misstep on a world stage. Compare it to how actresses rarely take chances with their Oscar gowns.

So who had the top Super Bowl ad? Analytics company iSpot.tv looked at ad social actions and earned views, and declared Mountain Dew "PuppyMonkeyBaby," Hyundai "First Date," and T-Mobile "Drop the Balls" the top ads. The Hyundai spot featured Kevin Hart and the T-Mobile starred Steve Harvey. Game day ads were viewed 476 million times online, iSpot.tv reported, with 62.4 million occurring yesterday. Facebook streamed more of them than YouTube (34 million versus 20 million) showing that Facebook is stronger for buzz-worthy video events.

The specialists at Visible Measures say the top ads were Wix.com "#StartStunning," Hyundai "The Chase," and Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl." It notes a 64 percent increase in online ad views for the top 10 ads compared to 2015. Visible Measures looks at views through hundreds of web and mobile properties. It also compared Facebook and YouTube performance, finding that Facebook counted for 55 percent of all views for the top ten Super Bowl ads. That's a big increase from 27 percent in 2015. Facebook drew more viewers during the game (20 million, compared to 4 million for YouTube), but YouTube drew more in the 12 hours after the game (31 million, compared to 9 million for Facebook). Facebook succeeds in the moment, but YouTube wins the long game.

According to TiVo, which measured viewing on its DVRs, Doritos "Ultrasound," Mountain Dew "PuppyMonkeyBaby," and Taco Bell Quesalupa "Bigger Than Everything" were the night's winners.

Analytics company Ace Metrix polled viewers to create a likability score for each ad. According to its results, Doritos "No Dogs Allowed," Honda "A New Truck to Love," and Colgate "#EveryDropCounts" were the most likable ads. No word one how likeability translates to brand lift, but in a year of mild-humored ads, likeability seemed to be what most brands were going for.

The car shopping site Edmunds.com also took a narrow look at the ads, measuring which Super Bowl auto ads translated to clicks on its own site. Mini, Acura, and Fiat created the most brand lift, it said, while Acura, Buick, and Audi created the most model lift.

The marketing pros at Adobe looked at social media mentions on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as various blogs and news sites, to see which brand got the most social media mentions. Colgate, Anheuser Busch, and Avocados from Mexico got the most buzz, Adobe says.

Finally, the video marketing experts at Pixability crunched the numbers dozens of different ways to create multiple lists of winners. The top YouTube ads by views were Hyundai "The Chase," Pokemon "#Pokemon20," and Mini USA "Defy Labels." The top Facebook ads by views were Hyundai "The Chase," Budweiser "#GiveADamn," and Kentucky Fried Chicken "Dream." Pixability found that brands that released preview or teaser ads ahead of time averaged significantly more views and shares. It also found that the top YouTube ad got 4.4 million more views than the top Facebook ad.

CBS Sports delivered a win for online viewers as it provided strong buffer-free Super Bowl online streaming. That marked an improvement over NBC Sports' and Akamai's performance in 2015, which left many in the media howling about buffering and delays. While the online stream—available through browsers or various consoles and set-top boxes—didn't offer any extras, it streamed the ads along with the game (which was a first) and gave online viewers an equivalent experience.

According to CBS Sports, the live stream attracted 3.96 million viewers who streamed a total of 402 million minutes of coverage, averaging 101 minutes each. Those viewers were able to access the stream from desktops, notebooks, tablets, connected TVs, and phones. That total is for the full event, which includes pre-game coverage. During the game itself, CBS averaged 1.4 million viewers per minute who watched over 315 million minutes.

Akamai was again the game's CDN. Other CDNs were on standby, but weren't needed. The Super Bowl was first streamed in 2012. Overnight TV ratings show this was the second-highest rated Super Bowl ever (last year's game set the record). In 2015, Akamai said it averaged 800,000 viewers per minute, with a peak performance of 1.3 million concurrent users.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net