Adobe’s Super Bowl buzz meter shows Falcons lead the Patriots in social mentions

In the run-up to the Super Bowl this weekend, the New England Patriots have generated more buzz on social than the Atlanta Falcons, according to research by Adobe Digital Insights.

Adobe said that the Patriots lead in total social mentions, at 1.18 million through January 30, but the Falcons have scored higher in terms of sentiment, at 3.35 versus 2.75 for the Patriots. (The higher the number, the better in terms of positive sentiment.)

Adobe found that the attention paid to mobile ads drops during the Super Bowl. That’s a good thing for the NFL, but not necessarily good for mobile advertisers. The completion of mobile ad video views drops to 50 percent during the Super Bowl, and it decreases an additional 28 percent during halftime. During the playoffs, completion rates were higher, at 65 percent.

Last year, NFL products saw a 19 percent increase before the Super Bowl and a 104 percent increase after it. Fans buy 2.1 times more NFL products once the AFC and NFC champs are crowned.

Above: Mobile ad viewing goes down during the Super Bowl.

Image Credit: Adobe

Social buzz is climbing leading up to the Super Bowl, but it is down from last season. NFL viewers peaked with an average of 48.5 million viewers for the Jan. 15 Cowboys versus Packers game (35 percent higher than divisional average), and there were 5 times more social mentions that day; however overall NFL social mentions are down 6 percent season over season.

Tom Brady, the quarterback for the Patriots, is the most talked about player on social.

The average Super Bowl ticket costs more than $5,000 today. But TV prices have dropped nearly 20 percent in advance of the big game, Adobe said.

Hot Wings and cheese pizza are the top foods during the Super Bowl, and prices for online chicken wings go up 40 percent on Super Bowl weekend, while cheese pizza prices go up 4 percent.

Adobe Digital Insights examined 165 million social engagements (i.e. mentions, likes, followers) across various platforms, video-ad performance data across 2.5 billion auctions during 2016 NFL playoff games from TubeMogul, and Digital Price Index (DPI) data.