Data on spending trends across categories, viewers' reactions, impact on commercial ratings, and social-media buzz are included in a TNS analysis of Super Bowl commercial winners and losers issued last week, reports MarketingCharts.

TNS Media Intelligence, TNS Media Research, TNS Media and Entertainment and TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony provided the information. Below, among the findings released by TNS.

Buzz Generated in Social Media

TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony analyzed the level of online discussion about Super Bowl commercials on social media. As of mid-day Monday, February 4, only seven brands were generating significant levels of discussion.

High Volume of Discussion

• Overall, viewers are highly positive toward the ads. Anheuser-Busch (representing the sum of discussion of all individual Budweiser and Bud Light ads) is getting twice the conversation of second-place Audi.
• GoDaddy is getting significant discussion but it skews negative. Strong negative feelings are, understandably, a driver of discussion.
• Coca-Cola discussion is extraordinarily positive - viewers enjoyed the Balloon and Carville/Frist ads.
• Both TNS's CPI scores and Cymfony's analysis put Anheuser Busch, Bridgestone and E*Trade in the top tier.
• Interestingly, a number of advertisers did well in CPI, but not in social media discussion, including NFL, Tide and most in the movies category.

Low Volume of Discussion

Salesgenie.com has low volume, but the posts are strongly negative. Many of them express the opinion that the commercial used racially offensive stereotypes. This year, ads with upbeat, positive messages were effective with consumers and also generated additional brand value in word of mouth.

Advertising Trends across Brand Categories

Record-Setting Level of Ad Time

Super Bowl XLII featured a record-setting amount of network commercial time, according to TNS Media Intelligence:

• Between the opening kickoff and the final gun, Fox aired 45:10 mm:ss of advertising messages, including paying sponsors, messages from the NFL and promotional plugs from Fox for its own programming.
• The past three games now occupy the top three spots in terms of Super Bowl ad clutter:

Category Wars: Battle of the Brands

Anheuser-Busch was again the exclusive beer advertiser in the Super Bowl - in contrast to the message clutter from movie studios and non-alcoholic beverage brands:

• Consistent with recent years' trend, eight motion pictures were advertised in the game - the largest number of competing messages from any single category.
• There was a surge in advertising from non-alcoholic beverages, as well:
  • Six brands aired spots in the game, an all-time high for this segment.
  • Along with the familiar presence of Pepsi and Coke sodas, there were competing messages for energy drinks (Gatorade; Amp) and flavored waters (SoBe Life; Glaceau Vitamin Water).
• Combined, movies and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for approximately 30 percent of the paid ad time in the game.

MarketingCharts provides a host of other findings, including on second-by-second commercial ratings and which commercials delivered on their $2 million+ price tag.