The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year, and Facebook and USA Today have partnered to create an application that allows fans to rate commercials during the event. Called the “USA Today-Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter,” the app will be online through Facebook and USA Today, and available via mobile, for users to watch, rate, and share ads during the Super Bowl.
According to Mashable, USA Today has had an ‘Ad Meter’ running for years, but this is the first time that online consumers will help decide the winner. Previously, USA Today organized volunteers and followed their immediate reactions to Super Bowl ads to determine the overall rankings. This year, the rankings on the Facebook app will be the main measure of ad performance, with the live volunteer group ‘supplementing’ the Facebook results.
Mike Hoefflinger, director of global business marketing at Facebook, told Mashable that “Making the Ad Meter social brings it to an entirely new level and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
Both companies expect the app to bring in some major sponsorship dollars, and joint packages will be available for advertisers who would like to purchase space on both platforms.
Mashable speculates that after a failure to secure rights to all of the Super Bowl advertisements last year, Facebook is eager to become “the definitive social network” for both ranking and sharing Super Bowl ads (against competitors including Hulu and YouTube).
