Facebook app to allow voting on Super Bowl ads

Facebook has teamed with USA Today,a Gannett Co. publication, on an app to let Facebook users rate Super Bowl commercials and share and discuss the ads with their friends.

USA Today’s Ad Meter has since 1989 ranked ads shown during the National Football League’s title game by average ratings from a panel of viewers, a group that this year will number about 300. The Ad Meter is watched by media professionals for validation of the millions they spend during the Super Bowl; the average spot for the Feb. 5 broadcast on NBC sold for $3.5 million.

Now the process for the first time will be open to members of one of the world’s biggest social networks, who will see the results of their voting in real time.

Super Bowl ads have become a sport in themselves, with companies making news just by announcing — and even teasing — new ads that will air during the game. When the ads are a hit they can generate enormous buzz — last year’s “The Force” commercial by Volkswagen AG, featuring a young boy in a Darth Vader costume, has been watched almost 50 million times on YouTube. (The ad came third in the 2011 Ad Meter, behind ads from Bud Light and Doritos, which tied for first.)

The app will have Facebook and USA Today co-branding, and will feature all the national ads that appeared during the game, a five-star rating meter and a button to share with friends. Users can also track the ratings and rankings as votes are being cast. Last year, Facebook users could “like” ads, and the number of likes was displayed on USA Today’s Ad Meter Web page, but it did not affect the final rankings.

Voting on the ads will begin at the game’s 6:30 p.m. Eastern time kickoff Sunday and end at 6 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The traditional USA Today panel’s results will be announced on Monday, Feb. 6; USA Today will reveal on its website late Feb. 7 the final rankings from the votes of Facebook users.