Eli Manning and the New York Giants defeated Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Sunday night’s Super Bowl 21-17. The game was seen by an average of 111.3 million people, the biggest audience in U.S. television history. We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Super Bowl buzz

Super Bowl mentions more than doubled mentions in 2011, 2010 and 2009.

Super Bowl sentiment

Conversations around the Super Bowl were 77% positive. The game generated more chatter than the commercials — ‘Giants’ appeared in 12% of conversations, halftime performer ‘Madonna’ appeared in 7% of conversations, and upcoming movie ‘Avengers’ appeared in 3% of all Super Bowl conversations.

Content analysis

Approximately 99% of Super Bowl mentions yesterday and today came via Twitter. The event generated more real-time conversation than blog content. An average of 58% of Super Bowl mentions came via males. Ads such as the H&M commercial featuring David Beckham effectively engaged women in the Super Bowl conversation.

Brand Bowl

With advertising selling for record prices, which brands generated the most buzz for their buck? Doritos generated the biggest spike in conversation and the most mentions among advertisers. The Doritos ‘Sling Baby’ ad was rated highest by users on a USA Today poll.

Many advertisements featured Twitter hashtags this year. Which campaign do you think was most effective?