Super Bowl Sunday is a night when the commercials get almost as much attention as the football on the pitch and advertisers will be hoping the millions of dollars they spent will pay off.
If Twitter mentions are anything to go by, PepsicCo and brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) both did pretty well out of their marketing investments during Sunday's game.
Bud Light (owned by AB InBev) got the top spot in terms of mentions on Twitter, with just under 22,500, ahead of Pepsi with almost 17,800, according to an analysis by Salesforce emailed to CNBC.
AB InBev also took third place with Budweiser, which had around 12,800 mentions, while PepsiCo-owned Doritos got about 10,200. In fifth place was Avocados From Mexico, with just below 10,000 mentions.
AB InBev bought five-and-a-half minutes of airtime at the Super Bowl, its biggest media spend for the event to date. With commercials costing around $5 million for 30 seconds, that could mean the brewer spent more than $50 million on Sunday. Budweiser brought back its famous Clydesdales, while Bud Light chose to criticize its competitors for using corn syrup in their brews, an ingredient that has been blamed for causing obesity. The ad caused a row on Twitter between Bud Light, the National Corn Growers Association and the beers mentioned in the commercial.
Meanwhile, halftime show sponsor Pepsi ran a commercial during the game featuring Steve Carell and rappers Lil Jon and Cardi B. It directly took on Coke, which is headquartered in Atlanta where the Super Bowl was played. A diner in a restaurant asks for a Coke and the waiter asks: "Is Pepsi okay?" before the three stars intervene.
Doritos also used celebrities, with Chance the Rapper and the Backstreet Boys appearing in a music mashup promoting its new Flamin Hot Nacho flavor.
In terms of Twitter hashtags, after "superbowl" and "sbliii," the most-used hashtag was "halftimeshow," followed by "spongebob," referring to cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants' appearance during Maroon 5's performance. The band paid tribute to the show's late creator Stephen Hillenburg with a clip of "Sweet Victory," a song that featured in a 2001 episode of Spongebob — which paid tribute to the Super Bowl itself.
"Avocadosfrommexico," "forthethrone" and "superbowlsunday" were also popular hashtags, with "forthethrone" referring to Bud Light's ad.
Most Mentioned Super Bowl Advertisers 2019
Source: Salesforce
1. Bud Light - 22,479
2. Pepsi - 17,767
3. Budweiser - 12,834
4. Doritos - 10,179
5. Avocados From Mexico - 9865
Top 5 Hashtags during the Super Bowl 2019
Source: Salesforce
1. #superbowl/#sbliii
2. #sbliii/#superbowl
3. #halftimeshow/#halftimeshow
4. #spongebob/#avocadosfrommexico
5. #forthethrone/#superbowlsunday