Dive Brief:

• Pepsi saw the largest leap in buzz among brands advertising during the Super Bowl, according to a new analysis by YouGov Plan & Track that was shared with Marketing Dive. The firm measured the soda maker's Buzz score, which tracks whether consumers heard anything positive or negative about the brand over the past two weeks. It found that Pepsi's score, which was 13.3 throughout January, jumped 5.5 points to reach 18.9 between game day on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, marking the largest gain in the category. Sprint's Buzz score grew by 4.7 points, Netflix's by 4.1 and Pringles' by a flat 4 points. 
• TurboTax saw the biggest gain in a Word of Mouth ranking that asks consumers if they recall discussing a product or service with friends and family in the past two weeks. Before the Super Bowl, 15.1% of consumers were talking about TurboTax but after the game, the number increased to 35.2%. People talking about the NFL, which ran a commercial for its 100th season, increased from 32.8% to 49.2%. Pepsi's Word of Mouth metric rose from 16.1% to 24.3%. 
• Avocados From Mexico showed the largest gains in Purchase Consideration, which YouGov uses to track consumers' willingness to buy, subscribe or view a product or service. The brand's Purchase Consideration grew from 15% to 27.1% after airing a Super Bowl commercial. Purchase Consideration jumped 9.2% for Doritos, 4.6% for Pepsi and 4.4% for CBS, the host network for Super Bowl LIII.

Dive Insight:

Almost two weeks out, YouGov was able to track some of the longer-term responses to the brands advertising during the Super Bowl, with some surprising results. TurboTax, for example, was met with a largely negative initial reaction to its "RoboChild" ad that depicts a robot kid who malfunctions once it learns it can never be one of the brand's live CPAs.

Early third-party analyses of the ad pegged it as a flop, and it has a heavy number of dislikes on YouTube. "RoboChild" was rated the most "eerie" Super Bowl commercial and one of the most WTF moments of the night, according to Ace Metrix, while Crimson Hexagon found that the keywords most associated with the creative were "creeped," "creepy," "tax" and "government."

With a little more distance from the ad's debut, however, it's clear that TurboTax was able to spark a good deal of conversation among consumers, which might count as a win during a broadcast that saw brands being criticized for playing things too safe — a problem that was compounded by a boring on-the-field showdown between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. 

Avocados From Mexico similarly also appeared to experience some cool responses to its "Top Dog" ad at first. But the brand's embrace of humor and celebrities, including Kristin Chenoweth, helped to create an emotional connection, according to YouGov,  which, in turn, helped to drive purchase consideration. Avocados from Mexico ultimately had the most-used brand hashtag, #AvocadosFromMexico, earning more than 606 million impressions, according to Brandwatch data released the day after the game.

Pepsi topping advertisers in YouGov's Buzz score ranking is perhaps less surprising. The "Is Pepsi OK?" spot starred celebs like Steve Carell, Cardi B and Lil Jon and leaned into humorous, self-deprecating messaging that made reference to some restaurant diners' preference for rival Coke. The effort has been cited as one of the best for Super Bowl LIII, with the campaign hashtag #PepsiMoreThanOK earning more than 62.5 million impressions, per Brandwatch.