2014 Super Bowl Social Media Winners

Every year millions of people watch the two best football teams of the season play against each other in the Super Bowl. Sports fans watch the Super Bowl for the love of the game. Some viewers tune in for the entertaining commercials. And, for those of us who live, eat, and breathe social media -- we take it all in. The conversations we monitor aren't just about the sport, the NFL, the teams, or even the players. The commercials are often the big winners of the day, scoring viral conversations on social media because of their paid placement on television.

Memorable 2014 Super Bowl commercials tied into social media

Esurance

Despite running a commercial after the big game (not during), Esurance was the Twitter winner of the Super Bowl with its #EsuranceSave30 campaign. The online insurance company offered up $1.5 million to one lucky winner who tweeted the hashtag after the game. The campaign received 1 BILLION impressions, more than 90,000 new Twitter followers, and almost 2.4 million tweets as of the following Monday after the Super Bowl.

Budweiser

Remember the 'Puppy Love' commercial by Budweiser during the game?  It has received over 55 million views, and nearly 34 million of those views were Sunday evening after the Super Bowl.

Doritos

Doritos held a user-generated-content contest which proved to be a fantastic campaign. Users submitted their own Super Bowl commercial, and then worked to earn votes on social media platforms in order to win a $1 million prize, and the chance to see their spot during the Super Bowl. This campaign was a big winner in terms of fan engagement.

JCPenney

Not all ads and social media campaigns were clear winners, however. Though JCPenney did not buy a commercial during the Super Bowl, it was still one of the most talked about companies. In a marketing stunt called #TweetingWithMittens, the retailer sent out some very odd tweets. Many assumed they were sent by a drunk employee during the game. Misspelled words, poor grammar, and downright peculiar brand tweets made everyone shake their heads (and wonder who was going to get fired on Monday.)
It turned out that the company was trying to sell mittens, so they had an employee tweeting while wearing mittens. They thought it was a unique way to “stay above the Super Bowl fray and instead create their own narrative.” Was it a success? Well, the tweets were seen by the thousands, and they obviously gained the attention of people wondering what the heck they were doing over there. It got the attention of the media. For good or bad, it did get a bump in earned and shared impressions.

We can't wait to see Super Bowl XLIX-- the game, and the commercials. And by the way, Go Hawks!

Tell us your predictions for 2015 Super Bowl Social Media Winners on Twitter @ThinPigMedia. Will it be Seattle's journey to a repeat win? The Patriots' #DeflateGate? Or some fantastic brand advertising?