There are the ads viewers say they liked in the Super Bowl. And then there are the ones that actually drove action.
Outcomes-based measurement firm EDO (Entertainment Data Oracle) scored the performance of every national Super Bowl 57 ad based on incremental online engagement for a brand or product immediately following its airing. Each ad is indexed to the median-performing Super Bowl spot to easily compare the relative impact of each ad on online brand engagement.
Co-branded airings are scored twice to capture the ad’s impact on each advertiser. The data may be slightly adjusted based on EDO’s final Super Bowl analysis.
Are you entertained, inspired and buzzed yet?
The economy may as well have been the elephant in the room this Super Bowl. At least 20 fewer brands pre-announced national Super Bowl ad campaigns this season, and EDO captured a fraction as many new rookie advertisers than in recent years past—signaling that perhaps only big, stable brands with big budgets could play ball.
Even stalwart Super Bowl industries like auto had fewer advertisers, and underperformed in a way we’ve not seen in recent history. The largely fumbling crypto industry, which dominated last year’s commercials, was nearly absent. And if you blinked, you might’ve missed the travel ads from Booking.com and Vrbo in this year’s Big Game.
Despite the economic uncertainty, Super Bowl 57’s ads showed that whatever the economic weather, consumers are ready to engage with brands that can make them laugh, cry or jump for joy.
Among the night’s big winners were:
- Entertainment: No. 1 Warner Bros. Pictures, No. 3 Walt Disney Company, No. 5 LiveNation
- Retailers (Temu appears four times in the top 20)
- Jesus (No. 2 He Gets Us)
Creativity was on full display as brands made a play for our hearts and minds.
Maybe all we needed was just a drink (ad)?
Anheuser-Busch released its three-decade exclusive grip on Super Bowl alcohol advertising this year. As a result, many expected a flood of new entrants into the category. While there weren’t new alcohol advertisers by the droves, those that showed up did so in a big way.
Serena Williams gave an inspiring speech for Rémy Martin, which outperformed the median Super Bowl ad by 2.7x, and Crown Royal highlighted its Canadian roots and associations with the oddly not-Canadian Dave Grohl, performing 2.4x better. Both spoke directly to their core consumer versus the classic “who’s thirsty” celebration of drinking.
Not to be out-zeroed, Ant-Man got in on the action by sharing a Heineken 0.0 with some of his besties. While Michelob Ultra may have had two entertainment tie-ins (more on that later), Miller Lite and Coors Lite faced off in a battle for the ages—psych! That was actually a Blue Moon commercial, which far and away stole the show, outperforming the median Super Bowl ad by nearly 6.8x. Cheers!
Celebs who give us the warm and fuzzies
Seeing your favorite celebrity in an ad is like seeing an old friend. And who wouldn’t want a friend like Bono, Diddy, Maya, or Jesus? That warm and fuzzy feeling they may give you is what drives online engagement.
U2 stole the show with the promise of upcoming shows in a giant Vegas sphere, outperforming the median Super Bowl ad by 7.4x. Diddy and Uber One kept our heads bobbing to the 90s beat – with a little help from his friends (Montell Jordan, Kelis, Donna Lewis, Haddaway, Ylvis) – performing nearly 3.9x better than the median Super Bowl ad. Maya Rudoloph and M&M’s introduced some chewy, chunky, chocolate-covered clams – to help us laugh through the latest culture wars in an ad that outperformed the median Big Game ad by 5.4x.
In a move that we didn’t expect (but probably should have), He Gets Us delivered big with two ads reminding us to be better, scoring 14x and 2.4x better than the median Super Bowl ad.
Competition is good
Competition at the game this year was fierce among several categories. The Entertainment category occupied three of the top five spots, with Warner Bros’ return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 17 years landing them the number one spot overall with the first look at “The Flash,” performing 24x better than the median Super Bowl spot. Disney claimed the number three spot, celebrating 100 years of masterful storytelling at 12.5x the median. Marvel’s trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” performed 3.6x better than the median Super Bowl ad.
For alcohol brands, Molson Coors, making its first appearance in 30 years at the Super Bowl, was in good company with former Super Bowl alcohol exclusive rights holder and competitor Anheuser-Busch. But it was Molson Coors who pulled ahead in the rankings with their co-branded spot featuring Coors Light, Miller Light, and Blue Moon. However, only Blue Moon emerged the victor of the bar room brawl as the number one Alcohol brand of the night, performing 6.7x greater than the median Super Bowl spot.
In eCommerce, Temu’s “Shop Like a Billionaire” campaign came head to head with Rakuten’s nostalgic “Clueless” campaign featuring Alicia Silverstone reprising her infamous role. But Super Bowl viewers this year were far more interested in the future than they were in the past. Temu’s top ad performed 10x better than the median Super Bowl ad, whereas Rakuten only performed 1.6x better than the median.
Food Delivery services also saw themselves competing for the ability to fulfill viewer shopping needs, with Uber One and DoorDash entering the Super Bowl fray. Diddy and his pals helped Uber One, land in the top 20 overall, performing 3.8x better than the median Super Bowl ad, crushing DoorDash, despite its trio of chefs.
Automotive hits the breaks
With higher interest rates and supply chain issues, for the first time since EDO started, the automotive industry stalled out before it made it to the Top 20 rankings. In fact, in the last eight years, automotive ads have appeared in EDO’s Top 20 most effective Super Bowl spots 76% of the time they air in the Big Game. That’s a higher percentage than Super Bowl category staples Food and Beverage (20%) and Entertainment & Recreation (60%).
However, of the participating Automotive brands, Jeep was the strongest performer followed by Kia performing at 2.6x and 1.5x better than the median Super Bowl ad, respectively. Curiously, of the three Automotive participants, only General Motors opted to co-brand with an entertainment brand. Featuring Will Ferrell, Netflix’s co-branded ad featured a variety of General Motors EV models driving through the world of Netflix’s most recent hits. But ultimately, viewers were far more engaged with Netflix than they were with General Motors, as the ad drove 1.2x better engagement for Netflix vs. the median Super Bowl ad, while GM found itself below average.
Sometimes all we want is just cute animals
Beyond entertainment ads, nostalgia, and celebrities and throwback songs, there is one thing we have come to expect in our Super Bowl ads: adorable animals. Thankfully there was a menagerie of non-humans to lift our spirits – ranging from Jeep’s musical safari to Paul Rudd drinking with ants? But it was the puppy power that truly stole our hearts.
The Farmer’s Dog detailed the life of two best friends from youth to adolescence to adulthood. The emotional ad hit close to home, not by ending with a message of “buy now” but with one to make more time with our best friends. And Amazon Prime twisted our hearts in knots with their lonely, sometimes misbehaving dog, where the solution is not what you think. Amazon isn’t just the place to shop for your needs, it’s the place that wants to help you fulfill them. Now, where’s that tissue box (ad) when you need it?
Don’t forget to check out EDO’s ranking of all celebrities featured in non-entertainment Big Game spots this year.
