The only verticals to see any growth in this quarter were consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)… so beer then.

The Budweiser advert ‘Puppy Love’ had already managed 1.1m online shares before the Super Bowl had even begun. 

Inexplicably the trend of prankvertising is very much still alive and tricking.

The advert ‘Devil Baby Attack’, a prankvert to promote the movie Devil’s Due which I covered as one of 14 intriguing and mysterious examples of online movie marketing was the most shared ad of Q1 2014.

The ad attracted 2m shares in the last quarter, making it the most shared ad of 2014 so far and the 22nd most shared ad of all time.

Pretty good work for a vomiting baby-puppet. 

Although the prankvert probably overshadowed the movie itself. When researching a previous article, I couldn’t remember the name of the film and had to search ‘vomiting baby horror movie prankvert’ instead of the title itself. Which I’ve just forgotten again.

Looking at the share performance of verticals, comparing Q1 2014 with Q4 2013, you can see that the Tech sector saw a decline of -55.9%.

Shares of automobil ads also decreased 45.8% from the previous quarter. It’s generally regarded that the automobile industry has had a poor Super Bowl two years running now.

The most shared automotive video, Jaguar’s ‘Rendezvous’ with its collection of villainous English actors, performed fairly well, but relied too heavily on celebrity faces in the assumption that this leads to virality. It’s an outmoded concept now that audiences are currently much more responsive to emotive storytelling techniques.

On a more optimistic note, despite this post Super Bowl blip, video sharing has increased by 22% over the last 12 months. 

It seems for the Super Bowl it’s not enough to spend $4m on your ad slot, merely air it and assume online success will come naturally. As Unruly’s insight director, Ian Forrester states it’s not just about making quality content: “savvy brands entertain consumers with engaging content but must also focus on optimising distribution to make the most of their investment”.

For more on social video strategy, read content marketing for YouTube made easy. You can also download the Unruly Social Video Report Q1 2014.