Super Bowl Sunday is always an opportune time for businesses to advertise. Attracting over 100 million viewers worldwide, the legendary event always plays hosts to the top global brands, many of who fork out in excess of $4 million for a 30-second advertising spot. So which brands stole the show at yesterday’s event, and how can others use the Super Bowl as a marketing opportunity?

Brands such as Budweiser, known for their legendary Super Bowl ads featuring the company’s mascots, Doritos, and even Mac, have firmly established themselves as the most successful to buy ad-space. Budweiser did it again this year, with their pre-Super Bowl ad featuring the endearing tale of a puppy who becomes friends with one of the brand’s Clydesdale horse mascots. Such was its popularity that it has become the most widely shared Super Bowl ad to date, and achieved over 30 million YouTube views. One of our favourites, and bringing it home for us Brits, was Jaguar’s celebrity-filled ad asking the question: “Have you ever noticed how in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?” Featuring actors such as Sir Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston, and Mark Strong as Bond villains, it’s typical of a star-studded feature ad, showing that brands will certainly pull out all the stops when it comes to getting their products noticed. And if brands can’t drum up something new, there are always those who will try to capitalize on a captivating past event. That’s exactly what happened when camera company, GoPro, decided to show us Felix Baumgarter’s Space jump as part of their Super Bowl ad, to make its audience aware that it was their cameras that captured the incredible event. We certainly like their roundabout thinking, particularly as it gives us the chance to relive a spectacular event.

But if some fail to land a lucrative televised spot, or don’t want to spend such a large amount for the privilege, social media offers a hugely visible alternative platform. Just take last year’s standout moment, for instance, when Oreo responded to the Super Bowl Blackout with its perfectly timed Twitter advert. The tweet and accompanying image which read, “You can still dunk in the dark”, generated around 15,000 retweets, conveying the power of clever real-time marketing. The one stunt that interested and surprised us from yesterday’s game was from department store, JC Penney, who confused Twitter followers with their seemingly misspelled live-tweets. Updates loaded with typos such as: “Toughdown Seadawks!! Is sSeattle going toa runaway wit h this???” appeared on the brand’s feed, causing many to wonder whether their account had been hacked, or if the marketing team were indulging in one too many beers! However, it was later revealed that the stunt was intentional- in fact, JC Penney had planned it in order to advertise its new “Go” mittens! Very innovative indeed, we think…And stirring up an incredible amount of retweets for its humorous live-tweeting was Pizza chain, DiGiorno, who tied in their product with the event. The company tweeted to its 55,000 followers: “Yo, this game is like a DiGiorno pizza because it was done after twenty minutes”, generating a staggering 16,547 retweets. Perhaps not the most clever, but clearly fans responded to an aptly timed and funny reminder.

Did you tune into yesterday’s game, or follow along on social media? Which adverts did you like best, and do you have any longstanding favourites from years gone by? We’d love to hear your comments, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share them on our Facebook page.