This Super Bowl Sunday, over 100 million people in the United States will gather in front of their televisions to watch the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots vie for the professional football championship. But there’s another “bowl” taking place at the same time that should be of special interest to readers of this blogThis term originated as shortened version of “web log” and has come to be known as a regularly updated web-page, often containing news, opinion and personal stories..
No, not The Puppy Bowl.
Or The Kitten Bowl.
Or The Toddler Bowl.
It’s The #Hashtag Bowl, presented by the friendly folks over at Marketing Land. Launched in 2012, The #Hashtag Bowl keeps score of all mentions for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, and Pinterest, along with all hashtags usage that are found on a national TV ad during the Super Bowl. The numbers will be updated on a live scoreboard on www.marketingland.com/hashtag-bowl.
Here are a few of the most interesting findings from The #Hashtag Bowl over the past three years:
- In 2012, only 25 percent of national commercials during the Super Bowl mentioned hashtags or social media. In 2013, this number jumped to more than 50 percent.
- Google+ has put up a zero on the scoreboard in every year that The #Hashtag Bowl has collected data.
- Instagram and Pinterest were also not mentioned last year, but media recognition app Shazam actually received two ad mentions.
- In 2013, all hashtags were counted as mentions for Twitter, bringing this social media platform a score of 26, exactly 50 percent of all national ads. The following year, other forms of social media integrated hashtags, which resulted in Twitter dropping to 4 total mentions (7%).
- Last year, there were 54 national ads included on the scoreboard. Hashtags were used in 31 ads (57%), URLs in 22 ads (41%), Facebook in 5 ads (9%), Twitter in 4 ads (7%), YouTube in 3 ads (6%), and Shazam in 2 ads (4%).
- Hyundai won last year’s prize for “Most Inclusive”, as they included a hashtag (#NiceHashtag), their URLThis type of uniform resource identifier (URI) is the name for essentially all addresses online, but specifically ones that use the HTTP or HTTPS protocol., and logos for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in both of their Super Bowl ads.
- Some of the hashtags used during last year’s Super Bowl include #UpForWhatever (Bud Light), #nocontract (T-Mobile), #framily (Sprint), #ItsGoTime (Go Daddy), and #AmericaIsBeautiful (Coca-Cola).
So in between bites of Seven Layer Dip, take a break from what is happening on the field and check out The #Hashtag Bowl to see what is going on in the world of marketing. We’d also love for you to leave us a comment about what you see during the Super Bowl and the effect it has on the online world.