Anheuser-Busch, E-Trade ads build on post-game buzz

ByABC News
February 7, 2008, 1:04 AM

— -- With a record 97.4 million viewers tuning into Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, every game advertiser could be considered a winner.

But drill down to finer data such as which marketers got the biggest bump in online chatter and which commercials were most remembered and it's clear some commercials delivered more bang for the big bucks than others.

With Super Bowl ad time costing up to $2.7 million per 30 seconds, any extra return is a boon.

Some advertisers scoring extra points, according to several ad metrics:

Online enthusiasm. A-B got the most next-day buzz on blogs, community forums and social networks, according to tracker Cymfony. Users gabbed about the brewer's Clydesdale ad, as well as its funny Bud Light ads, at nearly twice the level of the next-most-discussed advertiser, Audi. Audi's ad parodied the horse-head scene from mob film The Godfather.

Domain name company GoDaddy.com ranked fifth for online conversation, but a lot of it was negative, Cymfony noted.

GoDaddy aired a teaser ad with Danica Patrick in the game that directed viewers to its website to see the supposedly risqué ad with the race driver that was rejected for TV use. A lot of online users apparently thought it did not deliver.

Recall. On average, Big Game viewers recalled 39 of the 54 commercials, according to TNS Media and Entertainment. The most remembered, with 70% recall, was the E-Trade ad with the barfing baby.

Tied for second place were a Bud Light ad featuring Will Ferrell in his upcoming Semi-Pro movie role and a SoBe LifeWater ad in which Naomi Campbell danced with animated lizards, with each recalled by 67% of viewers.