Halftime Seinfeld Appearance Takes the Top Spot in TiVo's Annual Super Bowl Report

12th Annual TiVo Report Also Finds Blow Out Game Did Not Prevent 4th Quarter Ads From Hitting Home; Halftime Ratings Exceeded the Overall Game Rating for the 4th Year in a Row

Bud Light’s “Puppy Love” Was the Top Traditional Commercial

Doritos Ranks in the Top 5 for 8th Year in a Row

TiVo Research and Analytics, Inc., released this year’s top most engaging Super Bowl commercials, promotions and game top moments, crowning the halftime Seinfeld reunion for Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee as the most re-watched promo of the game. Also notable, both Budweiser and Doritos had two spots each in the top ten.

Ads with a “throwback” component were especially popular this year with six of the top ten spots incorporating themes from yesteryear, including a time machine, cameos from ’80’s icons in RadioShack’s “The Phone Call” and a Schwarzenegger appearance in Bud Light’s “Up for Whatever #2” and returns to TV by the casts of Seinfeld, Full House and The Muppets Show. Major brands previewed their Super Bowl spots on the Web more aggressively than ever before this year’s big game: #2-ranked “Puppy Love” from Budweiser garnered a whopping 36,574,390 online views prior to gametime, according to Youtube; number-5-ranked “Terry Crews and the Muppets” from Toyota grabbed 6,581,891 views. For the second year in a row, nine of this year’s top ten commercials were previewed on the Web before the big game.

The following top ten commercials and promotions from Super Bowl XLVIII according to TiVo with about half airing in the first quarter and half in the 4th:

1. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (Halftime)
2. Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” (4th Quarter)
3. GoDaddy’s “Bodybuilder” (4th Quarter)
4. Doritos’s “Cowboy Kid” (4th Quarter)
5. Toyota Highlander’s “Terry Crews & the Muppets” (2nd Quarter)
6. Doritos’s “Time Machine” (1st Quarter)
7. RadioShack’s “The Phone Call” (1st Quarter)
8. Oikos Greek Yogurt’s “The Spill” (4th Quarter)
9. Bud Light’s “Up for Whatever #2” (1st Quarter)
10. Squarespace’s “A Better Web Awaits” (1st Quarter)

TiVo Research is the only audience research service using second-by-second to rank top Super Bowl spots based on actual commercial retention relative to overall program viewership.

Super Bowl XLVIII versus Super Bowl XLVII by the numbers:

There were 20 sixty second spots during yesterday’s game versus the 14 last year.

FOX aired 28 promos during the game in comparison to last year when CBS aired 48.

This year’s game was 55 minutes shorter: The Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos in just 3:25:43, versus the 4:20:36 it took last year for the Baltimore Ravens to overcome the San Francisco 49ers. Last year’s four hour and 20 minute game was extended due to a blackout.

“Four of the top 10 ads and promotions on our list this year aired in the fourth quarter, in spite of Seattle’s huge lead on the field. The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee spot may not have been a true paid ad, but it functioned as one to consumers and definitely caught their attention,” said Tara Maitra, Senior Vice President, General Manager Content & Media Sales at TiVo. “With unique second by second viewing behavioral insights, TiVo Research helps networks and brands leverage TV’s big data to determine the most engaging moments of big events and the advertisements or promotions that resonate with viewers to improve the ROI of media buys. The game on the field may not have been a close one in the 4th quarter, but our findings showed viewers tuned in and were engaging with ads and promos – evidence that even ad buys at that point in the game were connecting with viewers.”

For the fourth year in a row, TiVo found viewership for the half time show exceeding that of the overall game. The top moment from half time was exactly what many fans were eagerly anticipating, the moment Bruno Mars began to sing following his opening drum solo.

The top re-watched moments from the game itself were (1) the bad snap on the opening drive that led to a Seattle Seahawks Safety,(2) the field goal to give the Seahawks an early 5-0 lead and (3) the kick-off return for a touchdown by Percy Harvin following halftime.

TiVo has been tracking and releasing its unique Super Bowl data for over a decade. In analyzing the past most engaging advertisements and promotions with viewers have most often been comedy-based. The top commercials of past Super Bowls include the following:

2004: Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light) – “Sleigh Ride”
2005: Emerald Nuts – “Unicorn”
2006: Ameriquest – “Friendly Skies”
2007: Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light) – “Language Course with Carlos Mencia”
2008: E*Trade – “Baby”
2009: GoDaddy.com – “Enhanced?”
2010: Doritos – “House Rules”
2011: Snickers – “Logging”
2012: Dorito’s – “Sling Baby”
2013: Taco Bell’s – “Viva Young”

TiVo Research’s Super Bowl analysis was prepared using aggregated, anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data from a sample of 30,000 anonymous households with the Emmy-award winning TiVo® service. TiVo Research gauges the interest in programming content by measuring the percentage of the TiVo audience watching in “play” speed. The most engaging ads and promotions are determined by looking for spots with the biggest bump in viewership relative to the surrounding 15 minutes of programming, offering a true reflection of change in viewership.

For more information from TiVo on Super Bowl and other audience viewership, please visit http://tivoresearch.com/.