Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Thanks to online video, there are more ways than ever for fans to indulge their passion for football before, during, and after the big game. While TV is the place to catch the action live, YouTube is the place to catch it in the days, months, and years after. In fact, consumers choose YouTube as their preferred online destination for game day ads.2 Why? It's the place to go deeper—to catch commentator analyses, to go behind the scenes, listen to interviews, watch highlight reels, and more. In fact, if you totaled up all the minutes of football content on YouTube, it would take more than 2,000 years to watch it all.

But football fans don't just turn to YouTube for sports content. YouTube is the fan favorite for finding everything football-related, from the highlights of last week's game to a hilariously bad lip reading of sideline comments.

To examine how fans consume online video during the millions of I-want-to-know, I want-to-do, I-want-to-buy, and I-want-to-watch-what-I'm-into moments that occur throughout the season, we analyzed YouTube viewing behaviors. Here are three key insights to help you reach and engage football fans....

Bud's puppy returns, Newcastle actually does it, BMW goes back in time, and much more.

The week before the Super Bowl has predictably seen a flurry of commercial activity, hype and hyperbole with more and more brands rolling out their big game ads to kickstart some momentum before Sunday. Celebrities! Puppies! GoDaddy even managed to ban its own ad ahead of time.

Not everyone has spilled their Super Bowl ad secrets, but here are all the commercials so far....