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It’s no big secret that as the most-watched TV spectacle in the world, the Super Bowl is also kind of a big deal for advertising. But it’s not simply enough to advertise your product during the big game — now you’re also expected to generate buzz about the ad before it airs using Web video and social media.
According to iSpot.tv, 50 brands and 84 teaser ads have amassed over 373.8 million views on the Web. Of those, 178 million occurred on Facebook. The rest were on Google’s YouTube, and most of those of were “organic” or unpaid. You can see most of the commercials here.
So who’s winning the race for pre-game buzz? Pokemon.
This extended spot celebrating the 20th anniversary of the card game and media franchise about collecting little monsters and training them to fight other little monsters had, as of this morning, generated 14 million organic views, 347,000 social actions for a total social reach of 69 million This despite no TV spending ahead of the game, according to iSpot.tv.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F46tGehnfo
Number two is this ad for the 2016 Hyundai Genesis featuring the comic Kevin Hart. It achieved a total social reach of 21 million, most of that in the last day or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8
In third place was “Weiner Stampede” from Heinz. It had been viewed about 8.1 million times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNN9nL2vppM
Further down the list is the “Baldwin Bowl” ad for the Amazon Echo, featuring Alec Baldwin, former San Francisco 49ers Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and the actor Jason Schwartzman. It’s been the subject of a bunch of teasers ahead of today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTz5jAn-XX8
My favorite of the bunch is “Commander” for the Audi R8 V10 plus. It’s the story of a retired astronaut who went to the moon a long time ago, but in his twilight years has lost his zest for life. He rediscovers it when given a chance to drive a super-fast Audi, because who doesn’t want to drive at 205 miles per hour at least once? The best touch is David Bowie’s “Starman” as the backing music. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8tgVqmKzw
(Correction: A reader let me know that Marino had been QB for the Dolphins, not the 49ers. Sorry about that. For some reason I got him mixed up with Steve Young.)
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
