Can Marketers Get the Super Bowl Social Media Bump without Buying a TV Spot?

By now, you’ve probably read all the stories about the brands that saved cash without sacrificing results by channeling their Super Bowl LV marketing efforts into digital.

• For instance, instead of buying a TV spot for the Big Game, Budweiser debuted a digital short film that was more effective than any Super Bowl ad of the past five years—at least according to one study.

Social lift without a $5.5 million TV spot?

Mediaocean numbers say Budweiser’s story = exception, not norm: Brands booked for the Super Bowl saw a combined TV social lift of 74%, versus 67% for brands without TV spots.

• “Some were able to make noise on social, but nowhere near the level of brands that were in the Big Game,” Mediaocean CMO Aaron Goldman told Marketing Brew.
• Goldman also compared that Budweiser campaign to Big Game advertiser Bud Light, saying that when Mediaocean “compared social engagement for the two brands on Super Bowl Sunday to the week before the game, Bud Light did better.”

Bottom line: You can try to replicate Super Bowl magic on social all you want, but touchdowns are rare without an in-game spot to center them.