Dialsmith

While everyone was busy digesting the on-field action as well as all those wings, nachos, pizza, etc. during the Super Bowl, our Dialsmith team was busy trying to make sense of the Slidermetrix polling we were seeing on the Super Bowl ads. As a quick refresher before we jump into the results, we use Slidermetrix to measure “gut reaction” to these ads. Using Slidermetrix, we ask viewers to watch and continuously rate the ads on a scale from 0 (Hate It!) to 100 (Love It!) using an on-screen slider. We collect data on the slider position every second as the viewer watches, which allows us to report on how they are reacting in-the-moment to what they are experiencing. With the data we collect, we can report on an overall mean score for the ad as well as pinpoint specific seconds where the ads peaked or where they hit bottom. We can also split the data by gender.

Slidermetrix reports on how viewers are reacting to each second of the ad. Results are displayed as colored lines on a graph or as an overlay on top of the ad.

With the game over and the results tallied, here’s what Slidermetrix told us about this year’s ads:

• Ads featuring stories that pulled on the heartstrings or made us feel empowered connected with our viewers; Budweiser, Dove, McDonald’s, Coke and others all scored high marks with this approach
• Viewers enjoyed more of the ads this year than last year as we saw more ads receive overall mean scores of 60 or higher than in previous years (15 this year to 6 last year)
• But we also saw two spots (T-Mobile and Nationwide) hit epic lows (more on those later)
• Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” spot was the most popular ad, receiving the highest overall mean score (70) with significantly more ratings than any other ad in our polling

View Slidermetrix results for Budweiser’s “Lost Dog”

• Fiat’s “Little Blue Pill” was the biggest surprise as it aired without any pre-game buzz or fanfare. It received the same overall mean score (70) as the Budweiser ad but placed second due to less overall ratings
• Both the Dove Soap “Real Strength” and Always “Like A Girl” ads scored well with both men and women; the Always ad had one of our highest peak moments with women at 87
• T-Mobile’s “Kim Data Stash” ad set all-time low marks with our viewers, scoring the lowest overall mean score (37) that we’ve seen in three years of polling and also had the lowest rated “not-so-super” second, bottoming out at a 26

View Slidermetrix results for T-Mobile’s “Kim Data Stash” 

• Nationwide’s now infamous “Make Safe Happen” spot was also an epic miss with our viewers; while it’s overall mean score (43) placed it a distant second to T-Mobile, it shared the distinction of tying T-Mobile for the lowest rated second at 26
• Contrary to rumors that auto makers were staying away from advertising in this year’s Super Bowl, it was still the largest category; top scorers in this category were: Fiat (70), Toyota’s “How Great I Am” (63) and BMW’s “New Fangled Idea” (61)

Want to dive deeper into our Super Bowl ad ratings? Read our final Slidermetrix report on the 2015 Super Bowl ads.