He told us that many ads are likable, but for an ad to be effective, it has to connect with consumers on an emotional level. In other words, consumers need to remember the brand, the product, and the goal of the ad.

Which ads did you consider “effective” this year? Please let us know in the comments.

As Zach Walton wrote earlier this week, the top 5 ads this year all included humor. Here’s the complete top 10 list from Ace Metrix:

In a post-game interview with Daboll, he explained that Ace Metrix bases its analysis on a balanced set of geodemographic consumers viewing the ads. It then scores them on a 9-point scale model that rates the ads on the most important attributes that drive effectiveness. From there, it determines its Ace Score on a 0-950 scoring basis.

“It’s not just a poll like American Idol voting contests with the thumbs up or thumbs down,” he said.

Through this model, Ace Metrix can find out how effective ads were in connecting with consumers and spurring a behavior change. The firm analyzes ads all throughout the year in order to compare and contrast its data.

Speaking about the winning ads of the Super Bowl, Daboll told us that it was obvious the brands had conducted adequate testing. Incidentally, when we spoke to him last week, he predicted that M&M’s, Doritos, and Coca-Cola would be in the top spots, and he was right. According to him, the marketers behind these ads are some of the best in the world.

Because humor connects with broad audience, such as the Super Bowl, Daboll was not surprised it was used in the top commercials. He did point out that, humor isn’t the only element that works. The 6th most effective ad was the “It’s Halftime America” from Chrysler and was not humorous at all.

Although the ad has sparked some controversy, Daboll said it really connected with consumers since it had the highest overall relevance score out of all the ads.

Chrysler’s ad also topped the “Most Effective Automotive Super Bowl Ads” list but was followed by the humorous driven ad from Honda, “Matthew’s Day Off.”

Here’s the complete list of automotive winners:

The least effective ads this year were a bit surprising, since Budweiser had 3 of its 5 ads in the bottom 5. The others that didn’t connect well were Hulu’s “Hulubratory” and H&M’s “David Beckham’s Bodywear Collection.”

Daboll told us that the H&M ad was long, boring, and way over the top, saying that the only group that liked it was women over 50. He also called Hulu’s ad “incomprehensible” since it wasn’t able to communicate its message.

Although Budweiser normally does well, the company’s Bud Light Platinum spots did not resonate with consumers at all. In fact, many consumers were just puzzled by them. The company took a risk with advertising a new product at the Super Bowl, and it didn’t prove to turn out in their favor.

“When you’re launching a new product on such a large venue, you still have to communicate some information about it… or people are confused,” said Daboll.

“It’s very hard to do a great Super Bowl ad – that’s why you can’t give enough credit to the guys that seem to do it year after year,” he added.

Daboll went on to say that the brands that consistently do well are likely already starting on next year’s Super Bowl ads. The key to success is not being funny, he continued, but it’s having the right message and testing until it’s perfect.

Flurry began the study with the belief that the “second screen” (a mobile device, the “first screen” being the TV) is still “largely more disruptive than complementary.” Basically, people aren’t really using their devices in tandem with the TV – more like opposed to it. When something happening on the TV isn’t interesting to a viewer, they are then likely to pick up their iPhone and start playing Angry Birds.

Their study pretty much corroborated that belief. Big moments in the Super Bowl broadcast equated to decreases in app usage. People put down their phones for things like the coin toss and for kickoff.

But the longest sustained period of time with a drop in app usage covering the entire Super Bowl came during Madonna’s halftime performance.

Whether people were watching because they thought it was awesome, or because it’s hard to look away from a train wreck – the point is people were tuned in.

From the post:

Studying overall trends reveals a highly correlated, inverse relationship between app usage and game, halftime and commercial events. Generally, app usage increased steadily over the first three quarters of the game, showing the challenge in holding peoples’ attention over several hours. However, because this year’s game was close throughout, including an exciting fourth quarter finish, app usage remained relatively checked.

Noticeably, app usage declined significantly during the last part of the fourth quarter. The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time. From this, we conclude that Madonna strongly held viewers’ attention on the first screen and was a major draw for the Super Bowl this year.

Advertisement popularity was also found to link to a decrease in mobile app usage. The ad that saw the smallest use in apps was Elton John’s Pepsi commercial.

“Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”

Martin has defended what he said in his Tweets as not being homophobic at all. His comments came immediately after the H&M underwear commercial featuring David Beckham.

Since Martin has not deleted any of the Tweets in question, we can walk through the whole thing in chronological order and see how it played out. First, here is the Beckham ad that ran during the Super Bowl.

Immediately after that, Martin Tweeted:

Ain’t no real bruhs going to H&M to buy some damn David Beckham underwear! #superbowl

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

Followed immediately by:

If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

Here is where things started to go bad for Martin. He was challenged by multiple people on Twitter as to what he meant by the Tweets. Were they homophobic?

@ShelbyKnox @rolandsmartin Hey Roland, why? B/c that might mean they’re gay? @CNNLive fire this homophobe.

— Brian (@briansmith31681) February 6, 2012

Martin responded…

@briansmith31681 @ShelbyKnox @CNNLive no, fool! Look at the underwear! You would be the only fool on my TL to come to that conclusion

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

From here out, Martin tried to explain that his issue was not with a mostly-naked man, or gay men. It was with Beckham being shown in a commercial during the Super Bowl. He went on to remind people that he makes wisecracks about soccer a lot. His assertion was that the Super Bowl (American “football”) was no place to run an ad about soccer (European “football”). His crack was about Beckham the soccer player, not Beckham as a half-naked man.

@onmysoapboxx are you that dumb? I rag on soccer all of the time. David Beckham. Soccer player. Pay the hell attention!

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

@marcslove So when Beckham is in a #superbowl commercial, I crack on him. I always say Americans are into football, not soccer.

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

Martin even made another comment about Piers Morgan that would seem to back his “it was about soccer” defense.

I bet soccer fan @piersmorgan will be in line at H&M in the morning to get his hands on David Bechman’s underwear line! LOL #superbowl

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

And, Piers Morgan responded to him in kind, being jovial and saying nothing about gays.

@rolandsmartin I don’t need all the padding. If you get my drift.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 6, 2012

Someone else responded to that exchange…

@rolandsmartin @piersmorgan : Oooh. Not nice. .

— Karen Hunter (@karenhunter) February 6, 2012

And, once again, Martin pointed to soccer as the crux of his joke…

@karenhunter @piersmorgan I’m always jacking with Piers about his love of soccer! LOL

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

Flash forward to today. CNN suspends Martin as commentator based on his Tweets. Seems to me like a spineless thing to do. Stand up for the people who work for you if you can tell they are not in the wrong.

This man’s misunderstanding has put Roland Martin’s career in question. This is how an ignorant accusation can get out of hand fast, especially when an organization like CNN refuses to do the right thing. This has nothing whatsoever to do with political ideology. It’s just a matter of decency. Roland Martin explained himself. And, there is at least a whole mountain of reasonable doubt as to whether his statement was interpreted correctly. CNN chose to bow to the invective of ignorant people.

Granted, Internet videos of people fighting are as old as the invention of online video, but after seeing these pop up over and over again after any sporting event of note, it’s becoming clear that the downfall of society will not be a nuclear war or a zombie apocalypse.

It will be because people were too concerned with getting good video of the world crumbling around them instead of trying to do something about it.

Perhaps I’m overreacting, but after watching the upcoming video of Giants fans fighting at the Super Bowl parade — female fans, no less — the fact people are more concerned with letting the fight happen, all so they can film it is disheartening.

Or maybe I’m just getting old. Here’s the video in question:

Cat fight! Cat fight!

Let me guess. The first girl slept with the other girl’s boyfriend while Eli Manning was doing his MVP thing at the Super Bowl and got caught. Now, they’re playing the feud while a bunch of useless bystanders sit, watch, and video. Naturally, additional fights break out — again with females — as they, I don’t know, try to defend their “girl’s” honor?

Or maybe they just wanted to be on YouTube with they hair flying hither, dither and yon.

While the fighting itself is pretty standard for an Internet video, I’m still drawn to the crowd, one that’s more concerned with getting good video instead of putting a stop to the needless fracas. Is this what we’ve become? A society of attention whores who care more about being popular on the Internet than acting in a somewhat civilized manner?

Like I said, maybe I’m just getting old.

The reaction to such a drastic move was about what you’d expect, but even though you know it’s coming, the round-up video still manages to be pretty damn funny, because, let’s face it, people don’t like their football-watching being interrupted.   Especially during the Super Bowl.  The reactions, as indicated, are normally in the vein of a “WTF?” reaction, but for some reason, they don’t get old.

The compilation video leads this post, and if you’d like to see the individual videos, check out Zach’s article from Super Bowl Sunday.

Naturally, the video has enjoyed something of a viral reaction, having already accumulated over 900,000 views since it was posted on Monday (February 6).  If you look at the YouTube comments, you’ll find the reaction to the video was largely positive.  

There are a quite a few “That was a lot funnier than I expected it to be! Great job!” and “i don’t think i ever laughed so hard in my life!” comments, but, as with every YouTube comments section, there is a nice amount of trolling, as well:

Look at all those sheeple wake up America there are more important things going on right now !

prskater521

And:

It’s good to see that at least there is something Americans truly care about. Unfortunately, it is not banksters looting the economy and sending jobs overseas, only someone unplugging the TV during the Super Bowl. We are in a lot of trouble.

agcw86

Sigh.  Can’t we all just get along?

According to USA Today, advertising tracking website AdMeter.co.uk announced a line-up best commercials based on their data.

With many of the funniest spots making the list, the top spot, however, belongs to a very talented baby and his (or her) annoyed grandmother.

In the commercial a young boy proceeds to taunt the the grandma and innocent baby with a bag of Doritos from across the way in the safety of his club house. The grandmother, sick of the boy’s dastardly teasing, decides to make use of the baby’s bouncy swing. She then takes up the child, throws her power wheelchair in reverse and launches the baby across the yard. The whipper snapper nabs the bag from the hands of the surprised boy then returns safely to the porch to enjoy the snack with grandma.

Regardless if you’re a child or an elder, the Super Bowl is one event watched no matter the age. It’s a clash of titans, the best of the best. All the year’s hard work comes to a head only to eventually explode in glorious victory.

With that being covered, it’s no wonder the big game was named as the most watched television program is history. Now, only adding compliment to courtesy, it has been named the most streamed online program in history with well over 2.1 million viewers. The NFL said that NBC’s streaming of the game was a “tremendous success in its first year”, according to a report in The New York Times

This is the first year NBC has streamed the Super Bowl live over the web, although they do regularly stream other games during the regular season.

SVP, Business Development and Managing Director of Digital Media, NBC Sports Group, Kevin Monaghan said this about the stream:

“The Super Bowl XLVI live stream exceeded our expectations in every way. Increasingly, sports fans are looking to digital coverage as a complementary ‘second screen’ experience, and we delivered on that promise with unprecedented robust coverage. The record traffic that grew throughout the event, as well as the record high engagement numbers, underscores the complementary aspect of digital as an enhancement to our exceptional television coverage.”

Hans Schroeder, NFL Senior Vice President of Media Strategy and Development commented on NBC’s streaming of the game:

“It was exciting to work with NBC Sports to offer fans the Super Bowl in more ways than ever before. The Super Bowl live stream was a tremendous success in its first year. We will continue to look for more ways to reach our fans.”

NBC says 2,105,441 active and unique users streamed Sunday’s game, while 4,589,593 live video streams were open. Combined, users spent 78,624,422 minutes streaming the game with an average of greater than 39 minutes spent actively engaged in viewing the game online.

Today’s videos feature an amazing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire story teller, Michael Winslow doing video games, Unicorns humping dolphins, and the making of a wooden lamp shade.

Is it real? Most signs point to yes, and hopefully it is. Should it have been aired during the Super Bowl? I’ll leave that up to you. Either way, this commercial definitely went the dark comedy route.

Fact: Liam Neeson, throughout this entire segment just sips on his (what is hopefully) scotch, chews on a coffee stirrer; it’s already more badass than full shows on television. Neeson is truly a boss. The rest of the segment is funny too.

Nothing else to say, it’s a video of a scooter going 70mph in the snow.

The stories which led to the answers in Slumdog Millionaire have nothing on Joann Chan from Brooklyn, NY.

This video is proof that we sports fans (I’m self admitted) are some of the dumbest people on the planet. And to the guy who still has his Christmas tree up in February…COME ON MAN.

I definitely empathize with being a synaesthete.

Synaesthesia from Nikko Hull on Vimeo.

What happened to Michael Winslow appearing in films? Yes, he has a one note schtick…but it’s a funny one note schtick. You’re telling me you wouldn’t want him to make a cameo in Hangover III?

Now, this commercial should have aired during the Super Bowl. Humping a dolphin, humping a dolphin…get a tattoo!

Who knew watching a wooden lampshade being made would be so interesting and hypnotic…

In a blog post, John Donovan, AT&T’s VP, laid out some statistics of how much data their users transmitted, how many phone calls they made and how many texts were sent from those at the game.

Surprisingly, their customers uploaded more data than they downloaded – nearly 40 percent more in fact. They were posting videos and sending pictures over text.

Total data usage in the Lucas Oil Stadium was 215 GB which is the highest ever recorded for a single sporting event.

Their customers made 75,204 calls from the game and sent 722,296 texts.

The company took this opportunity to point out the improvements they made to the area around Indianapolis in anticipation of the big game. They launched Wi-Fi Hot Zone with 15 access points, installed an expanded Distributed Antenna System at the stadium and a number of other venues, added capacity to nearly 200 cell sites throughout the area and deployed nine Cells on Wheels.

They also had a command center with street teams that helped fans on the streets before, during and after the game.

Here’s a video explaining the work AT&T did to outfit the city with a new wireless network:

Recent data confirms that this is true, in fact, the info shows a 60 percent increase in buzz from previous years.

Engagement rates- Actively “engaging” in Tweeting, Posting, Pinning, Stumbling, etc… about Super Bowl related information.

This first graph shows engagement rates for Super Bowl and non Super bowl related posts from December 2011 to February 2012.

The second graph reveals engagement rates for game and non-game related posts during the actual game.

The third graphic details daily engagement rates from January 2012 to February 2012.

The fourth and final graphic shows hourly engagement rates for Super Bowl related posts on game day.