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The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched annual sporting events in the world, and this year it became the most watched television broadcast ever, with an average of 123.4 million viewers watching Taylor kiss Travis… I mean - watching the Kansas City Chiefs beating the San Francisco 49ers in a nail-biting overtime victory.
This televised event had more viewers than the moon landing. More people watched this game of football than watching Neil Armstrong bounce around on the moon. Can you believe that?
Since the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched televised events of the year, it’s also a time when brands will spend a lot of money for a few seconds of attention from those millions of viewers. In this article, we’ll take a peek at some of the hottest Super Bowl ads, how brands are trying to latch onto the Taylor Swift rocket, and a peek into the Triple Whale data to see how our brands spent money on advertising the big day this year compared to last.
There’s no denying that Taylor Swift has an influence on many things, and it’s very likely a new cohort of football fans decided to tune in just for a glimpse of Ms. Swift. In a survey from Morning Consult, more than half of adults in the USA labeled themselves a fan of Taylor Swift. The buying power of millions of Swifties will be heavily courted by marketers both during the big event and beyond.
Smart brands understood the opportunity to advertise to this new cohort of viewers that were 52% women and 45% millennials. Cetaphil ran an ad that depicted the Taylor Swift Effect, where “this season, dads and daughters found a new way to connect”. It was a great example of referencing Taylor Swift without ever using her name, with numbers and friendship bracelets her fans would instantly recognize.
The Taylor Swift Effect, or young girls getting into football because it’s Taylor-adjacent, is a real and true phenomenon, which has been documented all over TikTok by many. One creator, Sharon Mbabazi, claimed Cetaphil ripped her and her step-father’s content directly, and the company has since “made it right”. Good on ya, Cetaphil.
The biggest player on Super Bowl Sunday was not Patrick Mahomes, but Temu, who “bludgeoned” us into knowing its name. If you didn’t know what Temu was before, you should know now.
Some estimates suggest that Temu’s investment in Super Bowl spending was over $21 million, and some outlets suggest that it was attempting to raise its profile with American users amid a drop in sales in recent months. Bloomberg reported that the company ran 6 ads total, 3 during the game and 3 afterward, but it may as well been 30 with the way those ads were annoyingly attention-grabbing:
The irony of Temu saying you can “shop like a billionaire” while buying ultracheap home goods and plasticware should not be lost on most consumers. But the flashy animations and catchy hook of “ooh, ooh, Temu!” has us all singing it in the shower and wondering how they infiltrated our brains so quickly.
Temu is a huge player in the DTC space, and if you only discovered them thanks to the above ads, you should know that they’ve been in business since September 2022. They certainly took Meta (Facebook/Instagram) by storm with their advertising, creating a few interesting ads; my friends have all shared some funny ones which make me wonder what their search histories are like (Google it).
If you’ve never shopped on Temu, just know it’s rife with controversy, from unethical production practice, stolen designs, and undelivered packages combined with poor/nonexistent customer service. If shopping like a billionaire to Temu means buying a bunch of things without a care in the world, they also expect that you won’t care when it doesn’t arrive, since it’s so cheap. Either way, they likely have inspired a few new customers to give them a shot.
A lot of Super Bowl Ads get weird, but the Duolingo Owl (appropriately named Duo) popping another Duo out of his butt might be the weirdest 5 seconds in Super Bowl Ad history.
This commercial had a bit of a “long game” on Duolingo’s socials, as earlier in the week they posted a video where Duo got a Brazilian Butt Lift care of Dr. Miami. Was that outrageous enough? No.
Duolingo combined their 5 second spot with a push notification they sent out to 4 million learners at the same time.
This commercial was great because it was memorable, quick, and simple. It also is entertaining for their target demographic, one that is young and active on TikTok, where they’ve managed to be successful with viral content and community engagement.
Created in 2020, Poppi was founded to solve a problem: Allison and Stephen Ellsworth wanted the benefits of apple cider vinegar without the unpleasant taste. What they created was a prebiotic soda that makes it “easier to drink to your health”.
In only 4 short years, Poppi went from slingin’ cans at a farmer’s market to competing with huge beverage brands on the world’s largest stage with this ad:
Poppi’s ad does a fantastic job drawing on nostalgia associated with big accomplishments throughout human history while also pushing against the status quo. During this good for you movement in beverage production, brands are competing for attention in a different way. They’re recognizing what we like about other established brands (great taste/nostalgia), and pulling away from the bad for you parts.
Poppi has both: good for you and also tastes great, unlike a lot of “health” beverages. The way the ad positions the brand is: “we’re soda, but we’re not bad for you”. Kind of like when Amy Poehler’s character in Mean Girls tells Regina and friends “I’m not like a regular mom, I’m a cool mom.”
As a company that started as a small direct-to-consumer (DTC), it’s awesome to see Poppi reach center stage with such high-impact advertising. In a similar way, many of our Triple Whale brands are driving ads on the day of the big game. But, how did they fare?
The ad machine doesn’t stop on the weekend, and Super Bowl Sunday is still just a Sunday for most brands. But, we’ve got the data - so we’re going to take a look at it.
Compared to Super Bowl Sunday in 2023 (February 12), brands on Triple Whale spent 27% more on ads this past Sunday. Combined with a 10% decrease in ROAS, however, that may not have been money well spent.
Super Bowl Sunday remains a tough time to compete for attention, since over 123.4 million viewers have their attention on the Taylor Bowl. However, many brands may have made adjustments to their creatives to latch on to the excitement.
Sharon Lee Thony from SLT Consulting shared a promotion they created for Betsy & Adam that referenced Usher, Taylor Swift, and was also perfectly timed to go out at halftime, when most people were checking their phones once the play had ended. The graphics featured dresses in both Chiefs and 49ers colors, so they could have a relevant promotion that appealed to fans of either team or those who were just tolerating sports “for good measure”.
It was a great way to reference the big event while also appealing to their target demographic in a fun way. And with a 33% open rate, the promotion managed to draw a few eyeballs away from Usher.
How did other brands choose to advertise on Super Bowl Sunday compared to last year? We compiled the data across 6 top industries to take a closer look (see below).
A highly competitive industry on Super Bowl Sunday or every day, spend was up 92% for Food & Beverage compared to 2023. On the flip side, the return on ad spend in 2024 dropped by almost 20%. Conversion rate and CPM also both increased by over 20%, while CTR and CVR dropped.
Pets are always popular, but the Puppy Bowl can get people interested in Pet Supplies on Super Bowl Sunday. While overall spend was down, the ROAS for Pet Supplies increased by 64% year over year, combined with a 37% conversion rate.
Could it be that some of the cute animals in the Super Bowl commercials inspired people as well? Apparently Goldie Hawn’s Golden Retriever was in the Budweiser commercial (which, of note, was as cute and feel-good of a commercial that we’ve come to expect from Budweiser).
Spend for the Toys/Hobbies industry was up over 48% from Super Bowl Sunday 2023, paired with a 45% increase in ROAS year over year. Are people in a toy-buying mood before/during the big game? With conversion rate up 127%, we’ve got motivated buyers or ads that are hitting the sweet spot day of.
Electronics saw a 44% increase in spend in combination with a nearly 30% decrease in ROAS compared to Super Bowl Sunday 2023. It’s apparently a very expensive day to run ads in electronics, since CPC and CPM are both higher than last year. It’s possible most people are tuned into a previously-purchased expensive television, so they’re on an electronics purchasing hiatus on Super Bowl Sunday.
In a similar theme, Sporting Goods had increased spend (23.75%) and decreased ROAS (-25.63%) compared to Super Bowl Sunday in 2023. The conversion rate dropped by 24.2%, which is a pretty significant change. With CTR down (-18.23%) and CPC up (+15.24%), the biggest spectator event of the year isn’t a great day to advertise sporting goods.
Clothing is a huge industry every day, and things look pretty stable year over year on Super Bowl Sunday. There was a modest increase in spend (+10.36%), with a slight decrease (-11.30%).
The most-watched event in history was a great time to grab some new potential customers (“ooh, ooh, Temu! – sorry). The way to stand out from the crowd was either a catchy jingle or a Buttception. DTC brand owners can take inspiration from a brand like Poppi, that was founded four years ago and is already investing heavily on the biggest spend day of the year for TV commercials. Most brands in our space, however, treated Super Bowl Sunday as another day to advertise their wares. Some industries, like electronics, should perhaps take a breather on a day like Super Bowl Sunday and invest a little more wisely, when their target audience is paying attention to them and not the TV screen.
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