Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Transformation
    Operations
    Data
    Experience
    Performance
    Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Team
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » Hashtags in Super Bowl ads slip to 30% in 2017, overtaken by URL use in 39%

Hashtags in Super Bowl ads slip to 30% in 2017, overtaken by URL use in 39%

From a high of 57% three years ago, hashtags were only in about one-third of ads.

Danny Sullivan on February 5, 2017 at 10:34 pm

hashtag bowl 2017
Hashtags were in 30 percent of Super Bowl 51 ads, down significantly from 45 percent last year. More ads used URLs than hashtags for the first time since Marketing Land has measured them, 39 percent in all. Twitter barely beat Facebook and Instagram as the most-mentioned social network, though neither was explicitly mentioned often.

The statistics are from our sixth annual Hashtag Bowl count of hashtags, social media mentions and URLs in ads shown during Super Bowl LI.

We tabulated only nationally shown ads and only those shown between kickoff and the end of the game. See  below for our full rundown and further notes on this.

The count

The scoreboard at the top of this article has our final count, but here’s the summary with percentages, based on a total of 66 ads reviewed.

  • Total national ads (kickoff to end-of-game): 66
  • Hashtags in ads: 20 total, in 30 percent of ads overall
  • URLs in ads: 26 total, in 39 percent of ads overall
  • Twitter in ads: 5 total, 8 percent of ads overall
  • Facebook: 4 total, 6 percent of ads overall
  • Instagram: 4 total, 6 percent of ads overall

Below, the frequency of both hashtag and URL use as Marketing Land has tracked over recent years:

hashtag bowl over time

Hashtag usage in Super Bowl ads hit a peak of 57 percent in 2014. It was 50 percent for 2013 and 2015. The lowest usage was 12 percent in 2012, when Marketing Land first began tracking.

The real surprise this year was URL use overtaking hashtags. Marketing Land first began measuring URLs in 2014. They consistently stayed below hashtag usage until overtaking it this year.

For those interested in past years, our past counts: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Hashtags remain plentiful

While hashtags dropped from previous levels, they were certainly in many ads — beginning with the third ad aired after kick-off by Avocados from Mexico with the #AvoSecrets hashtag:

avocados from mexico

Here’s Skittles with another example of an ad including a hashtag:

skittles ad

Twitter leads Facebook, but social mentions remain small

As in previous years, mentions of particular social networks was tiny. T-Mobile aired four ads that were responsible for most mentions, since those ads had logos for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Here are examples of two of them:

t-mobile super bowl

t-mobile super bowl

It was Wonderful Pistachios that gave Twitter the nudge ahead, mentioning only that social network in its ad and calling out its Twitter account:

Wonderful Pistachios

84 Lumber pushes people to site — and fails

Perhaps the most engaging use — and also biggest fail — of an element in a Super Bowl ad was by 84 Lumber. The company aired the story of immigrants trying to enter the United States, one that stopped short of the ending, with the enticement to view the rest at the journey84.com site:

84 Lumber

Unfortunately, demand swamped the site, perhaps because 84 Lumber wasn’t scaled up enough to handle it. It was down for many for nearly 30 minutes after the ad aired. On Twitter, the company apologized and directed people to its YouTube channel.

Running order of ads

Below is the full list of ads included in our survey, in order of appearance. Any hashtags used are listed. If an ad had a URL, Twitter or Facebook mention, there’s a 1 shown. If not, there’s a zero.

OrderBrandHashtagURLTwitterFacebookInstagram
1Google0000
2Michelin0000
3Avocados From Mexico#AvoSecrets0000
4Mobile Strike0000
5H&R Block0000
6Skittles#TasteTheRainbow0000
7Busch0000
8American Petroleum Institute1000
9GoDaddy1000
10Lifewtr#MoreInspired0000
11Intel0000
12Airbnb#weaccept0000
13World Of Tanks1000
14Yellow Tail0000
15Pirates of the Caribbean#PiratesLife0000
16Wonderful Pistachios0100
17Buick1000
18Logan#Logan1000
19T-Mobile#UnlimitedMoves1111
20Honda0000
21Bai#BaiBaiBai0000
22Transformers0000
23Tide/NFL0000
24Sprint1000
25Coca Cola0000
26The Handmaid’s Tale#HandmaidsTale0000
27WeatherTech1000
28Febreze#BathroomBreak0000
29Alfa Romeo1000
30Michelob0000
31TurboTax0000
32Lexus#Lexus0000
33Fate of the Furious#F81000
34Squarespace1000
35Wendy’s1000
36Toyota1000
37Tiffany0000
3884 Lumber1000
39Audi#DriveProgress0000
40Mr. Clean0000
41Snickers0000
42Budweiser0000
43T-Mobile#BagOfUnlimited1111
44Persil0000
45Kia#SmarterWay0000
46It’s a 101000
47A Cure for Wellness0000
48Evony0000
49Baywatch#BeBaywatch1000
50Alfa Romeo0000
51T-Mobile#TheSafeWordisUnlimited1111
52Wix1000
53Amazon Echo (x3)0000
54Turkish Airlines0000
55King’s Hawaiian1000
56Bud Light0000
57T-Mobile#TheSafeWordisUnlimited1111
58Nintendo Switch1000
59Mercedes1000
60Alfa Romeo1000
61Sprite#WannaSprite0000
62KFC0000
63The Handmaid’s Tale#HandmaidsTale0000
64Sprint1000
65Proactiv1000
66SoFi0000
Total662026544
Percent30%39%8%6%6%

We tried to count only ads that were nationally shown, as best we could, viewing from Los Angeles. Promos for shows on FOX or from the NFL were not included, nor were very short 15-second ads for “The Walking Dead” and Fiji Water.

We did include a joint NFL/Tide ad because it was more than an NFL promo. We combined the count for three Amazon Echo ads into one, because all were very short and shown within the same block with other ads.

We also included some repeat ads shown after the unprecedented overtime period began. Overtime ads began with 63 onward.

Stay tuned for more. Now that the hashtags have gone out in all these Super Bowl ads, Marketing Land will be churning through the data from various parties over the coming weeks to help readers understand which ads and campaigns were big hits and which were not.

NOTE: This story has been updated to change the URL count to 26 total or 39% from 27 total and 41%. We accidentally credited the AirBnB ad with having a URL but made the change after a reader pointed out it had none.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    What are your secrets to overcoming marketing challenges? Take our survey

    IAS introduces new Control Panel for contextual targeting

    Metaverse marketers favor virtual reality over NFTs

    Casted adds firmographic data to its B2B video and podcast platform

    Ruthless prioritization: The key to marketing momentum

About The Author

Danny Sullivan
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Related Topics

Performance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

June 7, 2022: Master Classes

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Discovering Now: Spring

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Webinars

Data-Driven Answers to Achieve Omnichannel Success

Is Your Marketing Stack Ready for Omnichannel CX?

Outrank in Organic Search with These 5 Core Tactics

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

The Retail Renaissance Report, USA Edition: 4 Keys to Predicting Online & In-Store Demand Across Global Markets

Thinking Bigger About Marketing Budgets

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.