THE SUPER BOWL AND THE DIGITAL WATER COOLER.

The Super Bowl party isn’t just around the bean dip anymore. In our second annual Super Bowl survey, VB&P found that this year’s game watchers plan to be more engaged with the advertising than ever before and pass along that enthusiasm with exponential force via their own social networks during the game and after.

“The math’s pretty amazing,” says Lucy Farey-Jones, partner and head of strategy, VB&P. “15% of watchers plan to post something about the Super Bowl on Facebook alone. If Fox gets the estimated audience of 100 million this year, that means that there will be 15 million people come game day ready to send a message to a further average of 130 friends. That’s 1.95 billion potential impressions during and post game. Creating advertising that is engaging enough for people to talk about in their status feeds to harness viewers’ digital habits is more important and more potentially rewarding for marketers than ever before.”

During the game, 22% of Americans plan to be on Facebook (vs.16% in 2010) and 22% plan to be texting, while only 4% plan to tweet. These percentages nearly double for young adults (18-34), with 41% saying they’ll be on Facebook, 44% reporting they’ll be texting and 12% tweeting. When asked what they will be posting about on their social networks, almost a quarter of survey respondents said they would post something about the ads over plays, the half-time show, parties, players and coaches. Americans are also almost as likely to “like” a brand on Facebook that advertises during the Super Bowl (20%) as they are to “like” a team (24%), with 25% of young adults likely to “like” a brand.

Social networks will also benefit brands after the game, as 43% plan to rewatch their favorite ads and 31% plan to pass those along to others via email or social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, up from 26% last year. These numbers rise with younger adults, with almost 49% saying they’ll share and 55% reporting they’ll rewatch ads online. When asked which social network site people will use to share ads, 39% said Facebook with 59% of young adults using this site to share ads. Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and texting accounted for less than 10% of respondents.

To read about our survey in the New York Times, visit here. And, for more information on the study or to schedule an interview with Lucy Farey-Jones, please contact Meredith Vellines at meredith.vellines@venablesbell.com.