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Game On: The 2016 Marketing Land #HashtagBowl Is Coming Soon

For the fifth straight year, we'll be tracking social media visibility in Super Bowl TV commercials. Here's what to expect from that and all of our pre-game and post-game marketing coverage.

Matt McGee on January 11, 2016 at 9:00 am

Super Bowl advertising season is underway, and Marketing Land is back with the fifth annual #Hashtag Bowl — our look at how advertisers integrate social media and online marketing into their Super Bowl TV commercials. As the game approaches, and after it’s over, we’ll also be reporting on how brands big and small take advantage of all that digital marketing has to offer when it comes to reaching the huge audience that watches the Super Bowl.

How Does The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl Work?

The #Hashtag Bowl is Marketing Land’s annual examination and commentary on how marketers are leveraging America’s premier cultural event, the Super Bowl.

Our team of marketing experts will be watching those expensive in-game ad slots to find out which social media platforms advertisers are steering fans towards by using brand or ad-specific hashtags or by directing viewers to specific social networks, and how viewers are responding to those ads and hashtags.

Pre-Game Brand Marketing

In the days leading up to the big game, our editors will be on the lookout for teaser ads, leaked clips and ads that didn’t make the final cut of Super Bowl-worthy commercials. We’ll be watching and reporting on some of the unique tactics that non-advertisers will use to try earning Super Bowl-related attention.

Some of the questions we’ll be discussing in our pre-game coverage include:

Who’s taking early advantage of search interest in the Super Bowl?
How are brands preparing to get their names into the real-time social conversation that happens during the big game?
Which pre-released Super Bowl commercials are earning the most buzz on YouTube?

Live Coverage & Expert Analysis Of Ads During Super Bowl 50

A panel of experts will be on hand to live blog and tweet all of the advertising action during #SB50 on Sunday, February 7, 2016.

Marketing Land Live Blog Kick-Off: 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT.
Super Bowl 50 Kick Off: 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl Scoreboard

On game day, we’ll be tracking and tallying all of the social media mentions by platform during television commercials that air during the game.

We’ll report on how many advertisers integrate hashtags into their commercials and which social network scores the most mentions from the brands that have invested big bucks in air time.

#Hashtag Bowl History

2012 – Facebook and Twitter mentioned just eight times each.
2013 – Twitter/Hashtags mentioned in 26 of 52 national ads.
2014 – Hashtags mentioned in 57 percent of national ads, Facebook mentioned five times and Twitter four times.
2015 – Hashtags mentioned in 50 percent of national ads, Facebook most mentioned again.

We’ll be keeping score again this year on our real-time ticker, which you’ll be able to track on our Hashtag Bowl home page.

Post-Game Analysis & Awards

Immediately after the game ends, Marketing Land will crown the social media network with the most mentions the winner of the 2016 #Hashtag Bowl. In the days following the game, we’ll sort through the data related to online marketing and the Super Bowl and analyze who won and who lost. We’ll be announcing five awards in all in the days after the Super Bowl:

Most Mentioned Social Network (immediately after the game).
Best Pre-Game Social Effort By An Official Advertiser.
Best Pre-Game Social Effort By An Unofficial Advertiser.
Best Social Effort By An Official Advertiser.
Best Social Effort By An Unofficial Advertiser.

In our post-game coverage, we’ll answer questions like these: Which ads resonated the most with online viewers? Which brands scored the most points on social media? Did any brands have a successful strategy for taking advantage of search activity related to their Super Bowl TV commercials?

Get In The Game!

Join in the conversation and tweet your analysis of Super Bowl digital marketing execution @MarketingLand using #HashtagBowl.

Follow all of the action here: http://marketingland.com/hashtag-bowl. We’ll see you on February 7 for our fifth annual #Hashtag Bowl!

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.