PLACING BETS
Advertising’s biggest stage
For many Americans, the commercials are a significant part of the Super Bowl experience, sometimes even overshadowing the game itself.
78%
3 out of 4 people who watch the Super Bowl say they watch the ads
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study, December 2024
24%
say they watch all of the commercials attentively
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study, December 2024
11%
tell us the commercials are their primary reason for watching the event
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study, December 2024
This captive audience combined with the high cost of airtime — $7 million for just 30 seconds — raises the stakes and pushes advertisers to produce their most creative and impactful work. The ads are a cultural phenomenon in themselves, often generating as much buzz as the game.
Primary Reason for Watching the Super Bowl
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study fielded December 5, 2024, in the United States among 1,000 people ages 18-65
Primary Reason for Watching the Super Bowl
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study fielded December 5, 2024, in the United States among 1,000 people ages 18-65
Ipsos’ Creative Excellence experts have been evaluating and celebrating top-performing Super Bowl ads over the past five years with our annual awards.
Unlike the more simplistic Super Bowl ad rankings from other sources, the Ipsos awards are based on a combination of methodologies and provide a more holistic, robust, and nuanced picture of success. What we’ve learned over the years is that even well-known brands that are Super Bowl veterans can struggle to deliver. A quarter of the ads tested over the past three years failed to make a significant impact in terms of creative effectiveness or in generating buzz.
Historic Super Bowl Ad Performance
Source: Ipsos Creative|Spark Super Bowl ads tested from 2022-2024.
We provide our clients with KPIs that align to their business objectives and are predictive of in-market campaign outcomes. This chart maps out past Super Bowl ad performance on two Creative|Spark KPIs that are critical to most advertisers for the Super Bowl.
Humor, celebrities, AI and nostalgia are sure to abound in this year’s Super Bowl. So let’s take a look at these tactics and how they can lead to effective advertising for the Super Bowl and beyond. For each, we’ll highlight data about how these approaches benefit brands, what audiences would like to see, examples of past award winners who scored a touchdown, and finally, we’ll lend our prediction on what we expect to see in this year’s game.
Super Bowl Advertising Creative Techniques
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study fielded December 5, 2024, in the United States among 1,000 people ages 18-65
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study fielded December 5, 2024, in the United States among 1,000 people ages 18-65
Source: Ipsos FastFacts study fielded December 5, 2024, in the United States among 1,000 people ages 18-65
We’re not joking — humor is a top tactic for Super Bowl advertising and beyond
When we asked viewers to describe their favorite Super Bowl ads of all time, over a third of the responses included funny moments and 75% say that humorous ads are their favorite for the Super Bowl. Advertisers tend to give the people what they want — Super Bowl ads deliver 37% more humor than the overall Ipsos U.S. advertising database. The outlier in recent years was in 2021, when many brands delivered nostalgic and inspirational messages as the world emerged from the pandemic. Viewers found the ads less entertaining compared to the previous year —
30% of the 1,000 people we surveyed after the game criticized the ads' entertainment value, compared to an average of only 17%. Comedic ads are high risk, high reward. They have the potential to be very memorable, buzzworthy, and effective.However, if the humor doesn’t land with the audience, the brand could get penalized or even face backlash. The key to success is to ensure that the humor enhances, rather than overshadows the brand’s message. Uber Eats successfully employed humor in service of their expanded service message in 2022.
2022 Best Brand Expansion - Uber Eats
Viewers ate up what Uber Eats delivered. The ad highlighted Uber’s business line extension by showing celebrities nibbling on a variety of non-food household items delivered in an Uber Eats bag. People clearly understood that the service now goes beyond just delivering food, according to our data. The ad showed strong social potential which was borne out when Gwyneth Paltrow set Twitter aflame.
Our 2025 Prediction
There has been a rise in using levity in advertising, with a humor category at the Cannes Lions awards and creatives discussing the use of humor for effectiveness. We think we will see even more brands attempt humor this year given all the buzz. At Ipsos, we hope to see advertisers not just put a smile on people’s faces, but to tie those positive vibes to the brand’s message for maximum impact.
Celebrities here, celebrities there, celebrities everywhere!
Celebrities have long held a big role in Super Bowl commercials, and each year the ads are more and more star-studded. Celebrity appearances are feeling almost table stakes, with the inclusion of at least one celebrity in 68% of ads and 40% of ads featuring multiple celebrities last year.
2024 TikToking for the Win Award - Dunkin
Dunkin used Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to reprise their “work role” theme, but added both Tom Brady and Matt Damon. The ad began with a strong TikTok activation but it was the authentic connection to the brand, campaign continuity, and over-the-top gear that made Dunkin the clear winner with an Ipsos Social Power Index of 135.
When asked about their favorite Super Bowl ad styles over the last few years, less than half (47%) liked celebrity appearances as compared to 57% who said they enjoy seeing “everyday people like me” in Super Bowl ads. Taylor Swift, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Beyonce top the list of celebrities that people expect to see in this year’s advertisements, according to our December 2024 survey.
According to Ipsos database findings, while celebrities can buy attention, they often lead to lower brand linkage and behavior change. Effective use of celebrities requires a logical connection to the brand and this is particularly important during the Super Bowl, where even the most famous celebrities may not stand out.
Our 2025 Prediction
We believe the use of celebrities may have finally peaked and be on the downswing this year. Not only are production costs higher, but there have been recent trends of blocking or cancelling celebrities in 2024. In response, brands may shift towards more relatable, authentic portrayals of regular consumers in the Super Bowl this year or at least focus on celebrity appearances that specifically deliver the brand’s message, rather than celebrities for celebrity sake. Steering clear of celebrities could be a tactic for brands who want to break conventions and be a "Misfit" during the game.
AI can do your job, but can it dodge being a buzzkill at the Super Bowl?
Only a quarter of viewers say they like the use of AI techniques for Super Bowl ads when we ask them directly. However, when we tested the recent AI-generated Coca-Cola holiday ad, we found that the average consumer does not seem to easily recognize AI use in advertising — it was mentioned by only 8 out of 300 people in a November 2024 Ipsos study.
The use of AI itself in commercials has been overshadowed by a broader cultural conversation about AI’s impact on the world. There is a palpable anxiety among audiences about the potential impacts of AI and people have begun forming instincts about where they are comfortable with AI.
Our 2025 Prediction
We predict we will see a lot of AI in this year’s Super Bowl and maybe we’ll even have enough AI attempts to add an awards category this year. This could run the gamut from brands telling stories on the benefits of AI in their products/services to creatives that leverage AI in their development. Ipsos has found that only by combining both human creativity and AI capabilities can we unlock new levels of advertising effectiveness.
Nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be
Due in part to the emergence of AI, nostalgia — a yearning for or fond remembrance of the years past — has increasingly become a more powerful global trend. Two in three Americans (66%) want their country to be the way it used to be. Nostalgia presents an opportunity for brands to connect with consumers by tapping into the feel-good factor in their past. Disney successfully harnessed the nostalgia surrounding their entertainment assets to keep viewers engaged throughout their spot in 2023.
2023 Best Use of Nostalgia Award - Disney
Celebrating 100 is a big deal. And Disney wowed fans young and old with a dazzling look across all its movie franchises. A highly emotional story using a mix of clips, animation and even some voice over from Walt himself, the ad helped to drive very strong feelings for the brand with an Ipsos Equity Effect Index at 184.
Budweiser Old-School Delivery
The ultimate form of nostalgia is when your brand/ad IS what viewers are nostalgic for during the big game. When we asked people to describe their favorite Super Bowl ad of all time, The Budweiser Clydesdales are far and away the most frequently mentioned. Budweiser is in a different stratosphere from other advertisers during the game, as the horses and their stories have become intertwined with the Super Bowls of year’s past. These are key distinctive brand assets, which the company has continued to invest in and build on each year with different stories around these iconic and memorable animals.
Our 2025 Prediction
We hope that established brands will lean into their distinctive assets and new(er) brands will be purposeful about integrating assets that can stand the test of time. Read more about the Power of You and how brands can successfully use distinctive brand assets.
We're ready for kickoff!
This year, we'll continue to test Super Bowl commercials with everyday people to understand their effectiveness and award the ads that best delivered on the brand’s objectives. Tune into our live webinar the day after the Super Bowl, Monday, February 10, to learn more about making creativity work for your brand and to see how many of our predictions played out!
Authors:
Shelley Yang Senior Director, Creative Excellence
Lisa Zielinski Senior Vice President, Creative Excellence
Dave Smith Senior Vice President, Creative Excellence