The Super Bowl is nearly as much about the commercials as it is about the game itself (perhaps more, depending on who you ask).

There are a ton of articles on who “won” the Super Bowl ad game – but this is one based in real data. Zignal Labs examined the social and media conversations around major brands and their advertising offerings on game day. Here’s what we saw in real time.

And here’s a deeper look at brand winners.

Tide rises above the #TidePodChallenge

No doubt about it, Tide’s had to do some heavy lifting after being inadvertently swept into the (incredibly dangerous and dumb) social media craze of eating the cleaning product. But they shifted focus by cannily deploying David Harbour, leveraging his immense likability as Stranger Things’ Sheriff Hopper, walking through every conceivable ad trope, from the insurance sales guy to the “We’re having so much fun, buy our beer!” storyline. The point? Every ad a viewer sees just might be a Tide ad.

Tide was first, with 39 percent market share among the top 10 performing brands, and equally impressive top-performing hashtags, #TideAd and #TideAds.

David Harbour took a pretty big spot in the Word Cloud – and we saw Old Spice mentioned too. Why? In a clever bit of cross-brand marketing by Procter & Gamble, Harbour pops again in this cheeky commercial with the Old Spice Guy on his Old Spice horse. As a result, Old Spice was mentioned in conjunction with Tide 2.5 percent of the time, representing good brand lift for the former.

Doritos is on fire but Morgan Freeman beats out Dinklage

 In another bit of smart cross-brand promotion, Frito-Lay pitted Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman in a head-to-head lip sync battle. Dinklage brought the heat touting Doritos’ fiery flavor with Busta Rhymes while Freeman delivered the chill for Mountain Dew with some Missy Elliott. Both stars were the most mentioned celebrities to appear in any of this year’s Super Bowl ad, but Freeman outpaced Dinklage by just a bit. The message pull-through was effective; we saw #IceCold and #SpitFire in the top 10 hashtags for the brands.

Michelob Ultra combines health and…beer

 The formula of affable everyman Chris Pratt + low-carb beer + a fitness montage + a relatively jolly (and mercifully brief) drinking song seemed to resonate for Michelob Ultra. Its #liveultra hashtag had decent pickup. Overall, it was a win for the company, which has tied the notion of its beer as a post-workout drink so effectively that it’s achieved increased market share for 10 consecutive quarters.

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad – and why?