The most-mentioned brand on Twitter during the Super Bowl didn't even advertise on TV during the game

Esurance was the most-mentioned brand on Twitter during Super Bowl 50 — yet it didn't even advertise during the big game.

Instead, Esurance chose to advertise in one of the cheaper pre-game ad slots, rather than forking out between $4.6 million to $5 million on a spot airing during the game itself.

But the main reason the online insurance brand drew so much attention was that it ran a competition on Super Bowl Sunday, giving away $1 million to Twitter users tweeting the hashtag #Esurancesweepstakes during and after the game.

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/696546513762144259
The trophy’s been awarded, but we still have $250K to give away. #EsuranceSweepstakes #SB50 pic.twitter.com/FdAfQ84q1O

It was no "dunk in the dark," in terms of creativity, but the competition and ad inspired 835,101 tweets mentioning the brand during the four quarters of the game, according to Amobee Brand Intelligence.

The next brand with the most mentions was Doritos. The corn chips brand aired an edgy TV ad created by a competition winner, depicting a baby jumping out of its mother's womb to grab some Doritos (and another not-so-edgy ad about dogs, which was also created by another winner of its annual "Crash the Super Bowl" contest.) There were 238,770 tweets about Doritos during the game, according to Amobee.

These were the top 10 brands with most Twitter mentions during the Super Bowl, according to Amobee Brand Intelligence:

1. Esurance - 835,101 Tweets
2. Doritos - 238,770 Tweets
3. Pepsi - 234,090 Tweets
4. Mountain Dew - 68,013 Tweets
5. T-Mobile - 49,887 Tweets
6. Prius - 43,173 Tweets
7. Coca-Cola - 35,379 Tweets
8. The Jungle Book - 34,317 Tweets
9. Pokemon - 33,534 Tweets
10. Bud Light - 22,167 Tweets

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