Super Bowl commercials this year were released to the public before the game—something that would have traditionally never happened because advertisers lose the element of surprise. But the world has changed and marketers have good reason to take a new approach. With the average 30-second ad going for about $4 million, the smart plan is to get the most bang for the buck.

When the commercials aired, they had over 100 million viewers, who watched what became a tight 34-31 game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, a high-energy half-time show from Beyoncé and a crazy power outage that halted the game for over half an hour. 

Some of the ads, however, were placed on YouTube and had millions of views before the kickoff. By using YouTube, in fact, some advertisers were able to attract more viewers before and after the game, than they did during the game, as people who viewed the commercials on the Internet shared them with friends.

That's one of the great things about social media.

2013 Winners
This year, it seemed no single commercial blew the competition away, although there were some standouts:
• Doritos’ “Fashionista Dad” (with a little girl getting a bunch of grown men to play dress up).
• Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” (with a group of nursing home residents partying through the night with Fun’s Grammy-winning song of the year “We Are Young” playing in the background).
• Volkswagen’s “Get In, Get Happy” (with a business man that has a Jamaican accent cheering up co-workers).
• Tide’s “Miracle Stain” (with a salsa spill that looks like Joe Montana).
• M&Ms’ “I’ll Do Anything” (with the candy singing “But I won’t do that” as it is about to get eaten).

Each of these ads was humorous, and when it comes to online sharing, humor is often the biggest driver of viral-marketing success.

There were two other standouts that were more heart-warming than humorous:
• Chrysler’s ad for Ram pickups trucks called “Farmer” (with a homage to famers from deceased radio broadcaster Paul Harvey).
• Budweiser’s “Brotherhood” (featuring a horse trainer being reunited with his Clydesdale).

One ad that was seen as terrible by many viewers:
• GoDaddy’s “Perfect Match” ad (with super model, Bar Rafaeli, kissing a nerd in a way-too-close and too-long close up, illustrating how the domain and Web hosting company marries "smart" and "sexy.")

While some people thought the GoDaddy commercial was offensive, it illustrated how a controversial ad can create a lot of free advertising in the form of news coverage. The commercial was a topic of discussion in the media in the days following the game. The nerdy kid, for example, was interviewed on multiple shows explaining what it was like to kiss a super model.

Even banned ads that are not allowed to run on TV received press and many online views, which serves as proof that traditional marketing is shifting.

A Few Post-Game Takeaways
Although almost all small business owners will never be able to run a Super Bowl ad, there are lessons that can be learned from marketing’s greatest showcase:

1. Have an integrated marketing strategy. The more marketing tools and tactics that touch a target audience, the more effective the overall marketing campaign is going to be.

2. Make a connection. Successful marketing does more than deliver a straight-forward message. Just look at how humor and passion rose to the top.

3. Leverage social media. It used to be that traditional marketing was king. That is not the case anymore. Social networks allow for a traditional marketing message to have a lot bigger reach, even in this case with the most-watched TV program of the year.

The winner… really?
So what ad was the best this year?  It all depends on what target audience the marketers were going for. While Tide’s ad was great, it was most relevant for this year’s audience, so it is likely not going to live on as well as classics like Mean Joe Green's Coke and young Darth Vader’s Volkswagen commercials. 

It is quite possible that the worst ad might be the best ad, as GoDaddy’s extended kissing scene might be stuck in people’s heads for a long, long time.  Even those that hated it likely didn’t take their eyes off of it, as who is going to turn the channel during the Super Bowl?  GoDaddy’s ad might end up being one of those moments we might not want to remember, but cannot forget.

Hopefully you enjoyed the game, watching the Harbaugh brothers battle it out in a nail-biter in the Superdome. But hopefully you got some marketing insights from the 50-plus commercials that aired during the 47th Super Bowl.

Mike Byrnes is a national speaker and owner of Byrnes Consulting, LLC. His firm provides consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. Need help with business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness? Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.