As most of you, I just finished watching the Seattle blowout tonight in the Super Bowl and on the advertising front I’m going to declare Twitter Hash Tags the big winner and domain names and Facebook as the big losers.
No matter what television commercials you loved or hated you had to notice the lack of domain names, the total absence of Facebook URL’s and the overwhelming amount of commercials which had a Tweeter Hash tag as its go to point of reference.
Even Godaddy, which sells domain name names, commercial didn’t have a URL/Domain name in its ad or its Facebook page but the hash tag #itsgotime on its commercial.
Speaking of Godaddy’s Ad, as I said in the DomainDherpa.com show, I think it was ineffective, unmemorable and if you never heard of Godaddy before you would have no idea from the Ad what the company did, what it was selling or have any idea of where you would go other than the Twitter handle to see anything about the company or the products they sell.
I would say as an unscientific study, a huge percentage of Super Bowl television commercials did not have a domain name, a URL’s or a Facebook page that it referenced but almost every commercial had a Twitter Hash Tag.
Budweiser commercials ended not with a domain name like Budweiser.com but the hash tag #bestbuds
This is not a discussion about new gTLD’s or .Com’s
Twitter won
Domain names lost
and Facebook pages were a no show
Congrats to Seattle who kicked some serious butt, my man Percy Harvin who finally got into a game to show what he can do and Peyton who is still choking it up some 20 years after he lost 4 of 4 games to the Gators in College.
Could it not also be argued that publishing/promoting domain names from a company that can afford a $4M/30 sec Super Bowl spot really is a waste of time. Everyone knows Coke, Pepsi, Sodastream and GoDaddy’s et al URLs. The hashtags work as a sort of sub category or campaign signpost. Was their an advertiser during the entire event which doesn’t already own and promote their dot com URL elsewhere?
As for social, 2012 was the year where Facebook v Twitter mentions were 50/50. Last year FB slid to just 5 mentions and this year as you point out, nowhere. I bet Facebook, if they advertised, probably would have used a hashtag this year.
And next year, when the new gTLDs are all the rage, I think URLs will be back in favour.
Craig
The advertisers could have stuck whatever they wanted in the TV commercials
My post is not to comment on what was wise good business decisions or not, just what I watched.
im canceling this blog.
sick of realistic observations. i want my money back
bye (i mean, night night.. see you kids monday morning)
Your should get 2X your money back
thats what was offered when i “subscribed” to this blog. seriously though, i hate you all. i dont even like the internet anymore. ive not been drinking since 9:30AM PST either… you guys suggesting that are fuggin ridiculous.
seriously goodnight i hate this blog and domains and godaddy and anything else i can be mad at.
Wow not a drink since 9:30 Am on Super Bowl Sunday?
Obviously that is where you went wrong
Twitter is a fad with little substance that will go out of style within a few years. Domain names will last forever.
@Jon
can you rub my tummy while i fall asleep and tell me everything OK?
Mike, I think this is all from a different angle. Domains didn’t lose. Domains are relevant, they are a given. The whole reason for hashtags in commercials during big live events is to get people talking about (insert said company/product). That’s all. Twitter was the medium, but if a company can get millions of people to talk about their product LIVE during a big live event then they have won. That’s what this was all about.
Mike, since you mentioned Harvin. I’ve met him. Also met Jef Demps (really cool guy) and Urban Myer very down to earth). I used to go to the open practices during thier ’08 run. Fun times.
prolly the point here is twitter didnt exist years ago and neither did hashtags.
domains didnt vanish suddenly but if they weren’t used in advertising its worth noting.. whens the last time u saw that on a mass scale, like the supa bowl.
by the way, im smoking pot right now.. not drinking.
Facebook has been using hashtags for almost a year now, so the hashtags were directed to twitter AND facebook. Don’t know how successful hashtags are on facebook because most ppl think hashtags are stupid on facebook and don’t use them.
You’re right, domains were a clear loser.
What was the exposure of the apps this year?
I absolutely agree that Twitter and the Hashtag were the big Superbowl winners.
The question now and the answer will be whether they do that next year.
We don’t know the results yet.
Domains speaking…
I think the BIG losers were the New gTLDs
seriously!
There is a new trend/semantics when it comes to the Social networking approach BIG companies are exploring/exploting…
Think Craig has said is perfectly above, if your company can afford to spend millions on commercials, they are already an established brand and can promote a campaign to get the largest social media foot print.
Small business does not have the same luxury, which is why domain names are mandatory.
@Samit Exactly. People are reading too much into this. This was not about domains losing. It was about being a part of the conversation LIVE. Why do you think every company used hashtag….because they know Twitter the place to go converse about events happening live on tv.
Twitter & the # will continue to be the winners, as “Social TV” gets even bigger. This has become the “Interactive TV” that was promised years ago.
Watching TV events/series/shows/debates/election day results is now a collaboration. Kinda like the days when folks would invite their friends over for the “Who Shot J.R.” party?, the Tyson fights…
also, 40% of viewer are watching the TV, while scrolling through their tablets & smartphones, simultaneously.
Twitter is not a fad; I expect more digital platforms to appear & compete with the #.
I thought the GoDaddy ad looked believable and thought she’d probably do well selling puppets with the free publicity. But after visiting the PuppetsByGwen website, I saw that she wasn’t in the business of selling puppets, but was instead accepting bookings to do puppet shows.
I wondered how someone could make a decent living doing that, (especially since she comes from an engineering background) but then saw at the bottom of the page where it stated, “Gwen is an official spokesperson for GoDaddy”. So it appears as though that could more realistically be her main source of income.
Unless of course, there is a lot more money doing puppet shows than I realize…
Like someone pointed out, Twitter isn’t the only social network that uses hashtags, you also have Facebook, Tout, Pheed, and many others. They are a great organizational tool for social conversations, and if you can get your hashtag term to trend worldwide, you have more people potentially seeing your message.
The Superbowl was great, normally I don’t like a blowout game, but being from the NW and cheering for Seattle, it was great watching them dismantle the (former) #1 Offense in the NFL. The first snap of the Broncos pretty much set the tone for their whole game. Can’t believe how many errors they made in the Big Game.