Introducing The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl: 2014 Edition

Are you ready to see the battle of the social networks during Super Bowl XLVIII?

Marketing Land is set to kick off Super Bowl advertising season with our third annual #Hashtag Bowl — your front row seat to see how all the social media platforms stack up against each other in Super Bowl ad mentions.

How Does The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl Work?

The #Hashtag Bowl is Marketing Land’s annual color 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.

Pre-Game Warm-up: Which Brands & Ad Trends To Watch

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.

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

• Will this be the year brands do a better job of ensuring call-to-actions in their ads are effective?
• Will we see brands “newsjack” the event, cashing in on attention even if they aren’t actually advertising?
• Will this also be the year brands do a better job of integrating search marketing, which often feels like an afterthought?
• Will brands avoid some of the common social screw-ups we’ve seen in the past couple years?

Live Coverage & Expert Analysis Of Ads During Super Bowl XLVIII

A panel of experts will be on hand to live blog and tweet all of the advertising action during #SB48 on Sunday, February 2, 2014.

Marketing Land Live Blog Kick Off: 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT 

Super Bowl XLVIII Kick Off: 6:25 pm ET / 3:25 pm PT 

The Marketing Land #Hashtag Bowl Scoreboard

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

See which social network scores the most mentions from the brands who have invested big bucks in air time.

#Hashtag Bowl History

• 2012 – Facebook & Twitter mentioned just eight times each
• 2013 – Twitter / Hashtags mentioned in 26 of 52 national ads 
  • 4 Facebook mentions
  • 1 Instagram mention
  • 1 YouTube mention
  • 0 Google+ mentions

This year, we’ll be keeping score on our real-time ticker, which you will be able to embed on your own site or blog post when it goes live. Stay tuned for more details!

Post-Game Analysis & MVB: Most Valuable Brand To Be Named

Immediately after the game ends,  Marketing Land will crown the social media network with the most mentions the winner of the 2014 #Hashtag Bowl.

In the days following the game, we’ll name the MVB: The Most Valuable Brand – the advertiser that bested everyone else in digital marketing, taking into account social media scores, search visibility, viral activity and more.

In addition, we’ll run post-game data points for insight on overall social media activity and popular searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Get In The Game!

Subscribe to the Marketing Land Twitter List to follow all of the brands advertising during the big 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 2nd for our third annual #Hashtag Bowl!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Elisabeth Osmeloski

Elisabeth Osmeloski is VP of Audience Development for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. In addition, she assists in programming sessions at Third Door Media's Search Marketing Expo conference and the Marketing Land Events series and manages speaking engagements for editorial staff. Follow her on Twitter @elisabethos.