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Comment by smackfu | Hacker News Reader

Seems odd to use Youtube views to determine whether the Super Bowl spending was worthwhile. You have to choose to watch a YouTube video, while the Super Bowl ads are pushed to everyone.

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The idea here is that if people connected with the video while watching the superbowl, they shared it online. Commercials were uploaded to YouTube by their respective company, and included a hashtag- deliberate pushes to form a conversation online. There are a lot of ways to measure engagement/impact of a commercial, this is one of them.

We thought that Youtube was a good gauge of general internet interest in the ad. If you liked the ad or ended up talking about it after, you probably pulled it up on Youtube to see it again.

Though, the only real data point that probably matters is what sales were like for the companies. I'd imagine they are at least a little correlated, would be neat to see some actual numbers.

We probably could get Clash of Clans downloads, interesting they're not necessarily selling anything.

Really? Have you played Clash of Clans? They sell gems!

Sales have a longer cycle than these numbers, and while the Superbowl is probably a big enough spend that it's noticeable for some companies, I doubt Budweiser or Nissan saw big bumps in sales from these spots.

Youtube views can be and are purchased just the same as TV views. The total views shown on a youtube video is inclusive of paid youtube advertising and isn't a very reliable metric of "interest" (when it comes to ads)

That makes sense, but I'm sure it's skewed between younger/more tech savvy target audience (ie, Clash of Clans) vs older or less savvy viewers.

The pac-man ad is a counterpoint. It's an ad with suspense and a twist. During the Superbowl, you have to watch the whole thing. I saw it on youtube, the suspense was curious, then there was the reveal - okay, got it now, no need to watch the rest of the light show. On Youtube, you can't recapture interest, but if someone has to watch the whole thing, they can re-engage later in the ad.

This doesn't mean that the youtube analysis isn't useful, but it does highlight a difference in the mediums.

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