Super Bowl ad spots are expensive — ranging from $2M to $13.5M. If an ad does well, people will talk about it, share it, and watch it online. One way to measure success is how many views videos got on YouTube. But we can go further. Instead of just views, we measure how many people actually watched through the video — specifically how many total minutes were watched as the video moved through Embedly. We’re going to use this to see who got the most bang for their buck, and more importantly — who messed up and what lessons there may be to learn. You can explore as well, using the Super Bowl data explorer.

The Attention Minutes Plot

You can see how many people watched through an entire commercial online, and where they dropped off. At any given time, the plot shows the percentage of people who clicked play and are still watching.

Here’s what solid engagement looks like. David & Goliath’s Pierce Brosnan commercial for Kia has an engagement line with a shallow slope. People who start watching tend to watch the whole thing.