Retailers abandoning social media?

A recent story in the Daily Mail suggests that the hashtag may be over as researchers reveal Super Bowl ads have abandoned them (and Facebook and Twitter) for URLs. As a URL based news service, we hate to gloat so here is what the Daily Mail reported:

Out of the total 66 ads that aired during Super Bowl LI, only 30 of them included a hashtag - while 41 percent displayed the firm's URL.

The shift was a new strategy for corporations to bring more traffic to their websites, rather than just gaining popularity on social media - with just five mentioning a Twitter handle, and four a Facebook page.

The statistics come from Marketing Land’s sixth annual Hashtag Bowl that counts hashtags, social media mentions and URLs in ads shown during Super Bowl, reports Danny Sullivan for Marketing Land.

‘We tabulated only nationally shown ads and only those shown between kickoff and the end of the game,’ shared Sullivan.

Super Bowl XLVIII, which was played in 2014, broke the record for the most hashtags used in ads - 57 percent. Both 2013 and 2015 had 50 percent, but in 2012, only 12 percent of ads included a hashtag. Click here for more from The Daily Mail.

Political candidates take note: While some are active social media participants, likely not as many as your consultant may suggest.