Which Brand Won the Super Bowl on Social Media?

The Super Bowl made another trip around the sun for a faceoff between the top two teams in the NFL, and of course, the world was excited.

While the Chiefs and Eagles hashed it out on the field, we paid special attention to one of the most important aspects of the Super Bowl LVII—and no, it wasn’t the halftime show. (Although, Rihanna was great out there!)

Instead, we took some of the most popular brands and analyzed their Super Bowl social media campaigns on game day using our Social Tracker from Semrush Social. Over the course of this report, you’ll see stats on engagement, activity, and audience to see who performed the best.

So if you’re a social media or marketing buff, grab your hot wings, gather around the big screen, and let’s kick off!

Brands We Watched This Super Bowl

For Super Bowl 2023 marketing on social media, we monitored 10 brands entertaining us on game day.

We chose brands that would be easily recognized around the globe:

1. Pepsi
2. Planters
3. Apple Music
4. FanDuel
5. Draft Kings
6. Heineken
7. Budweiser
8. Doritos
9. Pringles
10. M&Ms

We used Social Tracker to monitor growth percentage and changes in audience, engagement, and activity across three primary channels: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

We were also able to view the Top Content by Channel and isolate stats by brand to see even deeper insights.

How Engaged Were Social Media Users on Super Bowl Sunday?

Using Social Tracker, we can easily see where users are most engaged across social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This gives us insights into which channels receive the most engagement—including likes and comments.

Apple Music, M&Ms, and FanDuel had the most engagement overall on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Here’s what we learned about social media engagement on Super Bowl Sunday:

• Instagram was the number one platform for engagement
• Apple Music had the most engagement with 323,822
• Globally, there were 787,793 total engagements (based on likes and comments)

The top three most engaging posts on Super Bowl Sunday are below.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CokPh2_jTgD/

https://www.facebook.com/30634981956/posts/10159199895031957/

Where Were Brands Most Active During the Super Bowl?

Engagement is necessary for a successful social campaign. So, what brings engagement? 

A brand that’s actively posting on social media channels. 

With the Semrush Social Tracker, we were able to see which brands had the highest frequency of posts on their channels during Super Bowl Sunday. If brands are making great investments in Super Bowl ads, they should be making equally great efforts on social media. By doing so, they will be able to better track their ROI.

Here’s what we learned about their Super Bowl social media posts:

There were 637 posts published across all sponsored brands

• The platform with the most content published was Twitter
• FanDuel had the most activity with 151 posts

Knowing this, we can correlate the social channel with the highest frequency of posts to the engagement rate and see which ones are most effective. 

Which Brand Gained the Most New Followers?

Brands want to be rewarded for their efforts on social media, and one factor in gauging ROI is monitoring new followers. Super Bowl is a field day for social media teams, when ads reach more people through various channels.

Some brands garner a bigger following on certain social media accounts than others, giving them insight into where to focus their posting tactics for the most engagement and activity.

Here are some of the specifics:

• All brands on Super Bowl got 18,405 new followers
• Instagram had the most new followers for a platform with 7,252
• Apple Music had the most new followers for a brand with 9,409

Apple Music’s 9,409 new followers in one day demonstrates great social media strategy. It can even be useful to competitors who are looking to bring bigger gains in the months to follow.

Which Brand Won on Social Media?

It was a good game for all brands, but it was clear some outperformed others on social media. Here is our shortlist of stats for our top social media players during the Super Bowl.

We chose the top three brands that excelled in audience, activity, and engagement overall for the duration of Super Bowl Sunday.

Here are the winners:

#3 Planters

With so many great social media teams working hard on Super Bowl Sunday, we can’t leave out Planters. Even though they didn’t hit the same marks as the top two brands of the day, they played a good game.

Here are their game day stats from Social Tracker:

• 88,947 engagements + #4 position
• 132 total activity + #3 position
• 718 new followers + #6 position

Some brands are tough acts to follow, and Planters had some great posts going along with their campaign. It’ll be interesting to see how Planters will perform next year should they participate in the Super Bowl again.

#2 FanDuel

This brand had the second best game day stats for activity, audience, and engagement for Super Bowl Sunday, with slight differences. They also had some amazing posts throughout the day on Twitter.

Here are FanDuel’s final stats according to our tracker:

• 93,597 engagements + #3 position
• 151 total activity + #1 position
• 1,362 new followers + #3 position

There won’t be a Lombardi trophy for FanDuel this year, but with a little more posting, they might take the trophy next year.

#1 Apple Music

This brand scored in all areas, according to Social Tracker. They were quite active on all social platforms—favoring Twitter above all others. Apple Music also acquired the most new followers and had the most engagement across all platforms. Plus, they sponsored the Super Bowl halftime show.

Here are their final game day stats:

• 323,822 engagements + #1 position
• 43 total activity + #5 position
• 9,409 new followers + #1 position

Apple Music may not be the Kansas City Chiefs, but they sure did win the Super Bowl on social media.

Don’t Wait for the Next Super Bowl—Win on Social Media Every Day

To the other brands that didn’t quite make the cut on social media this year, good game and better luck next year! 

As for social media experts and marketers, if you’re looking for a way to up your game and outperform the competition on social media—Super Bowl or not—consider Social Tracker from Semrush Social.

It’s easy to use, helps uncover your competitors’ secrets, and transforms your strategy.