Of the many insights CI discovered after last year’s Super Bowl, one that was particularly interesting was the “Top 6″ advertisers fluctuated throughout the following months. Pre-Super Bowl hype for 2008 caused Pepsi, Anheuser Busch, Doritos, GoDaddy, Audi, and Bridgestone to arise as the “Top 6″ most talked about advertisers in January. But during the days after the game, Coca-Cola began to emerge as the dominant focal point of online conversation. Some brands did not make an appearance as a “Top 6″ advertiser until months later. Hyundai made an appearance in the “Top 6″ in April, and the White House Drug Council in May.

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Conversation about all the spots, however, dropped off significantly after only a few days.

In 2008, branding advertisements such as those for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, were more successful than some of the more experimental advertisements and new product launches. Doritos even tried to launch a singer as a “new product”, but she has since faded into obscurity. Doritos made the “Top 6″ for January and February, but received mostly negative sentiment, and lost its surge of activity the month after the Super Bowl. Hershey’s Ice Breakers Ice Cubes product was introduced to the masses at the Super Bowl and initially had high positive sentiment; discussion around the product died down soon after. Taco Bell’s spot for their Fiesta Platter did not get much attention, and disappeared from restaurants soon after. Only Pepsi’s new “Max” product appears to have had any sustained success.

The beverage category as a whole dominated share-of-voice throughout the months after the Super Bowl, possibly because of their more traditional branding approach to their Super Bowl spots. Or perhaps the Super Bowl is the place to re-enforce brand loyalty, and not the ideal spot to launch new products.

For 2009, CI will attempt to understand what causes longevity of discussion for certain brands and not others. We will help to ascertain what will be more impactful to consumers within the current economic climate- traditional branding messages that appeal to consumer brand loyalty, product attributes which appeal to consumers’ rational side, or those that provide much-needed comedy and entertainment.

-Courtney Gough