Ok, so the big game was on Sunday, and I could write a blog on how the some commercials were funny, nostalgic, creative and well, how some were just plain boring!  And I can link to all the other blogs or articles with the typical "Day After Superbowl" recap of the winners, losers, and most creative spots. 

But the most important question for marketers surrounding the Superbowl still remains - what worked?  How does a brand measure success?  Is it the most viewed ads?  The most talked about spots? The ones deemed "winners" by trade publications? 

And the biggest question of all...how did the internet and social media impact the biggest advertising spend day of the year?  What did the second screen do to the ratings and the advertising results? Were spots released online more well received?  Or were those spots not as memorable since the "shock factor" was gone? 

Last year, VW released their Superbowl ad "The Force" online and it was a huge success (and to date it has over 50 million views!)  Did the strategy work again?  Let's take a look.

For this year's ad, they released an online teaser, the full spot online, and then the on-air version aired during the game.  Hit or miss?  It didn't make the top 10 Superbowl commercials list in social TV that AdAge and Bluefin Labs released.  But it did receive over 12 million views for the teaser on and over 5 million views for the full spot on YouTube as of Monday at 4:00pm.

And according to TiVo, it was #5 on top 10 most watched commercials list.  And if you checked Hulu's list of "most liked" ads, VW took the top first and third spot. 

I'd have to say that this was a win.  What works for one brand may not be the best strategy for another, but in this case, VW was clearly trying to reach a social savvy, tech-driven audience and I'd say it worked.  Will it make me go out and buy a VW? I don't know.  But do I think that the brand has come a long way since "punch buggies?" - absolutely. 

Pre-releasing ads does have some sort of a buzz kill for the live viewing, taking the excitement away from seeing the ad for the first time, but it does have merit.  Just look at the top three most viewed ads (according to the TiVo report) which did not pre-release online (namely: 1. Doritos: “Man’s Best Friend”, 2. M&Ms: “Ms. Brown”, 3. Doritos: “Sling Baby”).

It certainly raises the bar for the other ads that don't pre-release - they better deliver!!  And with the second screen viewing, they may die on the vine before their :30 seconds are up (especially with Twitter putting out 10,000 tweets per second!)

For those who haven't seen any of the ads, you can watch them all on AdAge.com.