--- description: Auto insurance company is giving $1.5 million to someone who tweeted with #EsuranceSave30 title: Esurance Won the Super Bowl on Twitter Without Even Airing an Ad During the Game image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Esurance Won the Super Bowl on Twitter Without Even Airing an Ad During the Game  by [Andrew Katz](/author/andrew-katz/)  ## Andrew Katz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 4, 2014 1:59 PM CUT  by [Andrew Katz](/author/andrew-katz/)  ## Andrew Katz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 4, 2014 1:59 PM CUT More than 111 million people watched the Seattle Seahawks stomp down the Denver Broncos for an easy Super Bowl win on Sunday night, but the real game was on Twitter. And the winner, according to [Nielsen’s post-game report](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2014/super-bowl-xlviii-nielsen-twitter-tv-ratings-post-game-report.html "undefined"), was undoubtedly Esurance. The auto insurance company didn’t air an ad during the telecast, during which a 30-second spot cost as much as $4 million, but it did right afterward. And it saved—big. (MORE: [Esurance’s $1.5 Million Giveaway Is Making Twitter Go Crazy](http://business.time.com/2014/02/03/esurance-save-30-twitter-contest/ "undefined")) In fact, Esurance said it saved so much it would give $1.5 million—the difference between airing it during or after the game—to a single Twitter user who used the hashtag #EsuranceSave30 before 4 a.m. EST on Monday. The ad featured John Krasinski from _The Office._ More than 1.85 million tweets that included the hashtag were sent by more than 1.2 million people, Nielsen found, more than four times it’s nearest competitor. But Budweiser used two hashtags—#SaluteAHero and #BestBuds—and only 290,500 people tweeted with them about 393,700 times. The contest winner will be announced on Wednesday during _Jimmy Kimmel Live_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4028/esurance-won-the-super-bowl-on-twitter-without-even-airing-an-ad-during-the-game/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4028/esurance-won-the-super-bowl-on-twitter-without-even-airing-an-ad-during-the-game/"},"headline":"Esurance Won the Super Bowl on Twitter Without Even Airing an Ad During the Game","datePublished":"2014-02-04T13:59:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:32.862Z","description":"Auto insurance company is giving $1.5 million to someone who tweeted with #EsuranceSave30","url":"https://time.com/4028/esurance-won-the-super-bowl-on-twitter-without-even-airing-an-ad-during-the-game/","keywords":["Tech","Sports topic","Advertising","twitter","Super Bowl topic","social"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew Katz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/andrew-katz/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4028/esurance-won-the-super-bowl-on-twitter-without-even-airing-an-ad-during-the-game/","name":"Esurance Won the Super Bowl on Twitter Without Even Airing an Ad During the Game"}}]}] ```