By Alex Konrad, reporter
FORTUNE — Social media marketing company Wildfire counts giants such as Amazon (AMZN) and Nestle (NSRGF) as clients. The company even powers Facebook’s fan page — for itself. This past week, however, Wildfire worked with a different kind of giant: New York’s conquering heroes, the 2012 Super Bowl champions.
Helping the Giants to acquire new fans over social media and engage their existing base, Wildfire tracked both teams’ official Facebook activity in six days before the game and then closely during Sunday’s nail-biter, measuring new “likes” to each team page over 5-minute intervals. The company says that in the Facebook field, New York and Madonna both emerged as winners with only Boston left to pick up the pieces. Here’s how it broke down:
Before the game:
• In the week before the game, the Giants posted daily videos that would unlock for users on the Facebook page if enough new fans “liked” the team page. The Patriots, on the other hand, did not add original content, says Victoria Ransom, Wildfire’s co-founder and CEO
• Still, the Pats posted more to their fan page and drove more Facebook comments prior to kickoff
• In the six days before the game, the Giants’ fan base grew 86% faster than the Patriots’ did – but New Englanders remain firmly in the lead overall, with about 3.2 million registered fans of the Pats to 1.8 million for the G-Men
During the game
• The Giants posted 17 times to the Patriots’ two posts
• Victor Cruz’s early touchdown and salsa dance translated to 1,500 new “likes” of the Giants team page in its five-minute interval
• Patriots’ scores led to spikes of 1,200-1,300 new “likes”
• Giants fans, like their team, favor a second-half comeback victory: In the second half, Giants fans ratcheted up their activity over social media, while the Patriots tapered off after building a lead
• The Giants crushed the Patriots in “likes” to specific posts (unsurprising given the disparity in team activity) and each Giants fan was on average more likely to engage with the team through Facebook
Go Big Blue
• While spikes for both teams with each score might lead die-hards to cry “frontrunner,” the big spike of the evening came when Elite Eli finally dispatched Tom Terrific and anchored the New York-Boston rivalry firmly back in the city that never sleeps: 7,000 new likes for the Giants in the game’s closing moments
• The Giants’ official post declaring victory currently has almost 80,000 likes, nearly 6,000 comments, and was shared over 9,000 times
• The Patriots, meanwhile, have no wall for posting, but have still have links to “Essential Gear” shopping options and a poll asking “Which Patriots offensive player will have the biggest impact on Sunday?” – (58% said Tom Brady and 19% Rob Gronkowski – who might have earned more votes after the fact for his effective absence)
Madonna wins
• This year’s half-time show performer received a surge of “likes” for her performance, up 45,000 the morning after the game and peaking at 3,000 new fans for one five-minute interval during her set
Ultimately, the Pats can still boast the larger fan base on Facebook, but Giants fans flocked to their team in greater numbers. Wildfire says New York fans posted 16,000 times with the Giants tagged in their posts – but the Patriots don’t allow fans to tag them, meaning it’s impossible to compare. And while Pats fans probably don’t want to go dwell on the defeat at their team page (Wildfire says Facebook doesn’t release the data on people “un-liking” a page), Giants fans can keep the party going: after all, there are Super Bowl parade photos to go check out.
