Super Social Bowl: an Analysis of the Big Game

Super Bowl LV has come and gone, but not before scoring 9.1 million social posts with 64.3 million total engagements and 128 billion potential impressions over the course of the last month.* Wow!

In this article we will take a look at the social media trends surrounding the playoffs, the big game itself, and the real reason to watch the Super Bowl...the commercials!

The majority of the conversation naturally took place on Super Bowl Sunday itself (Feb 7th spike), but it was interesting to track the teams' wins and losses all throughout the playoffs using a themes filter.

The winner of the game always wins on social too. ??

One important trending topic in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl: Sarah Thomas, the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl! Out of the top 30 posts in the Super Bowl listening query, 3 of them were announcements about Thomas. ??

Another highly engaged topic was the matchup between quarterbacks: Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes II ??

?? Goat emojis began flooding the word cloud in the weeks leading up to the game as people reflected on the reality that this would be Tom Brady's 10th Super Bowl appearance chasing his 7th ring...at age 43!

Both teams ramped up branded content, hype, and engagement leading up to Sunday, but also play-by-play on social media throughout the game to help fans celebrate notable moments occurring on the field.

Another highly anticipated and most talked about element of the Super Bowl was the Pepsi Half-time Show, featuring The Weeknd.

These performances have been very hit or miss over the years, but The Weeknd gained a majority positive sentiment and provided the world with some very meme-worthy content, which I'm sure we'll be enjoying for days to come.

With no surprise to anyone watching after the first quarter, the game ended with both Tampa Bay and Tom Brady on top...and lots of blue Gatorade.

Good job, Buccaneers! #GoBucs

Lastly, let's take a look at the real reason people watch the Super Bowl.

Applying the filter "Best Commercial" to the Super Bowl conversations yielded these results:

Undeniably, putting Cheetos, Shaggy, and Ashton/Mila as the best commercial this year.

Some notable runner ups include:

Cadillac's commercial starring Timothée Chatlamet as Edward Scissorhands' Son

And Fiverr's commercial at the Four Seasons...Total Landscaping

And finally, applying the filter "Worst Commercial", gives us the most notorious of the evening: Oatly

?? Even though the stands were much less crowded and many people opted to forgo parties this year, the conversation and cheering continued to buzz on social media.

?? Stars, like Brady or Mahomes, are more than pro athletes to a team, they are influencers on social and a key component of what fans enjoy engaging about on the networks.

?? Social listening is a powerful way to understand the conversation nuances on social media and track what's trending before, during, and after important events.

*Data was collected using Sprout Social's Advanced Listening - pulling from Twitter, selected profiles on Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube and various web articles from January 10th to February 9th