The AFC and NFC Championships aired last Sunday night on CBS and FOX. As the teams battled it out in the final game before the Super Bowl, brands releasing new campaigns competed for viewers attention. During the games, 10 new ads debuted from brands such as Bud Light, E*TRADE and Gillette.
Mobile Giants Go Head-to-Head With New Ads
Wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint put Verizon on the defensive. Each released a new ad targeting its “A Better Network as Explained by Colorful Balls” campaign. T-Mobile retaliated with a spot titled, “Verizon’s Secret,” aimed to show consumers that it has doubled its LTE coverage and now reaches almost all areas that Verizon does. Sprint took a similar approach; its ad, “A Faster Network at Half the Price Explained by Colorful Balls,” asserted that Sprint’s new LTE plus network has faster download speeds and costs half the price of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.
When compared on digital share of voice, the three wireless carriers performed relatively closely during the AFC championship, with T-Mobile jumping to the front of the pack during the NFC Championship.
AT&T however, was the only brand who didn’t jump into the fight, opting instead to air an ad advertising its new unlimited data plan. Despite not going head-to-head with the other wireless brands, “Data Rich” earned 5.68% digital share of voice during the AFC Championship and 2.23% during the NFC Championship, making it the overall winner amongst the wireless brands with an average 3.96% digital share of voice.
Verizon, ‘A Better Network as Explained by Colorful Balls’
Sprint, ‘Faster Network at Half the Price: Colorful Balls’
T-Mobile, ‘Verizon’s Secret’
AT&T, ‘Data Rich’
Overall Engagement Champions
Outside of the wireless industry battles, the overall most engaging ads were DC Entertainment’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” trailer for the NFC Championships and Pepsi’s “Joy of Pepsi” during the AFC Championships coming in with 32.8% and 14.9% digital share of voice respectively.
Bud Light’s newly launched Super Bowl campaign starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen, was also a top performer. A fun, political party themed ad, “The Bud Light Party is Coming” aired during both games, but earned the most digital engagement during the NFC Championships on Fox, coming away with 14% digital share of voice.
See the rest of the night’s winners below.
Top 5 Most Engaging Ads of the NFC Championships
1. DC Entertainment, ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ Digital Share of Voice: 32.8%
2. Bud Light, ‘The Bud Light Party is Coming’ Digital Share of Voice: 14.0%
3. Paramount Pictures, ‘Zoolander 2’ Digital Share of Voice: 8.2%
4. Beats Audio, ‘Cam Newton and 2 Chainz’ Digital Share of Voice: 7.9%
5. Google Nexus Phone, ‘Introduction’ Digital Share of Voice: 7.3%
Top 5 Most Engaging Ads of the AFC Championships
1. Pepsi, ‘Joy of Pepsi’ Digital Share of Voice: 14.9%
2. DreamWorks Animation, ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Digital Share of Voice: 11.1%
3. DC Entertainment, ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ Digital Share of Voice: 9.8%
4. Nissan, ‘Born to Be’ Digital Share of Voice: 6.6%
5. Bud Light, ‘The Bud Light Party is Coming’ Digital Share of Voice: 5.7%