Critics agreed that this year’s crop of Super Bowl commercials were a sorry lot with few creative breakthroughs and almost nothing generating a load of postgame online buzz.
The one exception to that seems to have been movie trailers, which are judged not on the quality of presentation but on the quality of the movies themselves. Based on internet reaction, it looks as though Hollywood will have a number of blockbusters premiering over the coming months.
The trailer for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” generated more online buzz than any other Super Bowl ad, according to TNS Media, which released its postgame report yesterday.
“Transformers” generated seven times the amount of online discussion as the average Super Bowl ad, mainly on entertainment-focused social networks.
Overall, five of the top 10 most-buzzed-about Super Bowl ads online were trailers, including three of the top four.
“Star Trek,” the franchise reboot from “Lost” co-creator J.J. Abrams, ranked second overall, generating five times as much buzz as the average ad. “GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra” ranked fourth, just behind Anheuser-Busch, the only non-movie company to crack the top four.
“Land of the Lost” and “Fast and the Furious 4” also made the top 10, with more than double the average buzz for an ad.
Of course, there could be another explanation for the online popularity of the movie ads, and that’s the sheer volume of movie advertising during this Super Bowl.
Movie studios were the top advertising category this year, overtaking last year’s leader, non-alcoholic beverages, with nine total spots accounting for 7 minutes of ad time, according to TNS.
Automotive and non-alcoholic beverages were second at 5:30 of ad time, followed by beer at 4:30, up slightly from 4 minutes last year.
Still, when it came to actual online traffic to Super Bowl advertisers’ sites, nothing beat a bargain. Denny’s, which advertised a free breakfast for customers that took place earlier this week, saw by far the biggest gains for its web site, which soared 1,629 percent on game day compared to the average for the week leading up to the game.
In fact, traffic was so strong that the restaurant reported some overload, apparently from visitors seeking out a nearby Denny’s location, with crashes reported in the 24 hours following the game.
Cheetos.com was a very distant second, with traffic spiking by 313 percent, followed by Budweiser.com and Gatorade.com.
