The ‘Best Seller’ Ads of Super Bowl LX
Super Bowl 60 has come and gone, but there’s still plenty of data to dig into, based on System1’s testing of every in-game commercial. While marketers should understand the importance of playing the long game and leveraging the Super Bowl stage to drive market share growth, Big Game ads should also generate short-term interest, especially with some commanding $10 million.
Case in point: DoorDash’s 2024 campaign “DoorDash All the Ads” encouraged viewers to visit a sweepstakes website and provide the correct 1,813-character URL to enter to win every product featured in all the other brands’ ads. The brand collected more than 8 million entries while the campaign secured more than 11.9 billion earned impressions, nearly 300 million earned social impressions and 117 million viewers.
Did this year’s ads generate the buzz and emotional intensity needed to drive people to take action, whether it’s visiting a website to learn more about health screening, signing a pledge or purchasing a product?
By testing with real consumers and measuring their emotional responses to creative, System1 can predict how effectively ads will drive the short-term sales lift. Here, we’re breaking down the ‘best seller’ ads and the reasons why they work so well.
How We Measure Ad Effectiveness
First, let’s review the key effectiveness stats so you understand how System1 assesses ads with audiences, and how these insights help brands predict and improve the effectiveness of their advertising.
Our Test Your Ad Competitive Edge platform measures consumers’ emotional responses as they watch an ad, including happiness, surprise, neutrality, sadness, fear, disgust, anger and contempt. Understanding the type of emotion elicited allows us to predict long-term market share growth (Star Rating).
Short-term sales lift is also a critical factor when airing a Super Bowl ad. The CFO wants to know that those millions invested will bring a quick return! That’s why we measure how intensely people feel these emotions and speed of processing the brand. These two factors combine to form our Spike Rating, which predicts short-term sales effects in the weeks and months after airing.
The short-term returns for each Spike bracket are:
- 1.00 & below = Low
- 1.00 – 1.09 = Modest
- 1.10 – 1.18 = Good
- 1.19 – 1.32 = Strong
- 1.33 & above = Exceptional
Read our blog on America’s favorite ads (based on our Star Rating that measures the type of emotional response and predicts long-term brand-building potential).
Read our blog on the most distinctive ads (based on our Fluency Rating that measures strength of branding).
Spike’s Biggest Successes
Before we get into the rankings, let’s review the overall average for all Super Bowl ads this year. The average Spike Rating was xx (predicting ‘xx brand-building potential). As usual, the ads were filled with celebrities, who are skilled at driving short-term sales potential despite not always delivering on long-term brand-building potential.
Explore the top 10 leaders on Spike Rating. Where brands are equal on Spike, we broke the tie based on the higher emotional intensity score.
1. Dunkin’ (Artists Equity), Good Will Dunkin’ — 1.47
2. Bud Light (Anomaly), Keg — 1.45
3. Lay’s (Highdive),The Lay’s Challenge — 1.44
4. Michelob Ultra (Wieden+Kennedy New York), The ULTRA Instructor — 1.43
5. Universal Orlando Resort (Lucky Generals), Lil’ Bro— 1.42
6. Pepsi (PepsiCo Content Studio and BBDO), The Choice — 1.42
7. Ring (in house, Miniac and Bemo), Search Party from Ring – 1.41
8. Red Bull (Kastner), Dog Date — 1.41
9. Pringles (BBDO NY), Pringleleo — 1.39
10. T. Mobile (Panay Films), Tell Me Why — 1.37
How Brands Spiked Interest
We took a closer look at the ads that scored high on Spike Rating. In doing so, we can reveal the common themes they apply to drive intense emotional responses and support short-term sales potential.
- Celebrities are Shortcuts to Emotion: While celebrities aren’t as strong at driving long-term market share growth for brands, they do excel at supporting short-term sales lift. This is because familiar faces who are known for entertainment offer emotional equity – built-in goodwill that quickly translates into intense emotional responses. Pringles leaned into Sabrina Carpenter’s popularity, Bud Light brought back Post Malone, Shane Gillis and Peyton Manning for another year and Dunkin’ paired longtime collaborator Ben Affleck with former cast members of Friends, Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and more.
- Cultural References Don’t Get Old: Everything old is new again! From Dunkin’ referencing 90s sitcoms and Good Will Hunting to Michelob Ultra giving a nod to Kurt Russell’s coaching role in Miracle to Pepsi reviving the Pepsi Challenge and T. Mobile bringing the Backstreet Boys back, cultural references were aplenty in Super Bowl LX ads. Nostalgia is extremely powerful, helping to elicit intense emotions that support short-term sales potential.
- Leverage Negative Emotions with Intention: Negative emotions like sadness can help to drive emotional intensity. Ring centered its ad around a lost pet, eventually reunited with its family; Michelob Ultra showcased Greg as an underdog worth rooting for; Pringles saw sadness spike when Sabrina’s boyfriend constructed from chips was tackled by overzealous fans; and Universal focused on a boy whose older brother initially makes him feel too small and too weak. When paired with happiness and resolved by an ad’s conclusion, negative emotions offer a dynamic emotional journey for audiences.
- Brand Boldly and Quickly: Fast Fluency is one half of the Spike Rating. To excel in this area, viewers must be able to quickly recognize your brand. Red Bull has long leveraged its hand-drawn animation style so that it stands apart from other advertisers. T. Mobile leaned heavily into its bright magenta and set its ad inside a T. Mobile retail store. Dunkin’ also featured Ben Affleck working in the donut shop. And Sabrina Carpenter held a Pringles can from the very first frame. Distinctive brand assets throughout an ad, but especially early on, support brand recognition and ultimately, short-term sales potential.
Create with Confidence®
Want the full list of Super Bowl rankings? Access them and download the full Test Your Ad reports in our Test Your Ad Competitive Edge database. Featuring 100,000+ ads, it’s your resource for comparing and benchmarking your creative against the wider category so you can Create with Confidence®.