Every year, the Super Bowl draws in a massive audience. In fact, this year had 123.4 million viewers, which is the largest audience in broadcast history (WSJ). Whether you were watching for the football game, the halftime show, Taylor Swift, or the ads (or maybe all of the above), this cultural event is always the hot topic in the days to follow.
But for the purposes of this blog post, I want to focus on the ads. The stakes continue to climb higher and higher each year. According to Statista, the average cost of a 30-second Super Bowl spot skyrocketed from $5.6 million in 2020 to $7 million this year.
There’s no question that this Super Bowl was a massive cultural event. But how did the ads stack up? Follow along as I highlight a few common themes from this year's series of ads.
Despite the rapid rise of the creator economy, the Super Bowl relied heavily on celebrities. I find this rather surprising as there's great potential for content creators to have significant impact in a Super Bowl ad. A great synergy between entertaining, memorable, and authentic ad content could've been achieved with content creators. They've mastered the art of working with brands and selling their content in an authentic way (it is what they do for a living after all), and this would translate well to audiences.
The overwhelming consensus from this year’s collection of Super Bowl ads was the plethora of celebrity sightings. According to Forbes, 76% of consumers believe that the Super Bowl ads with celebrity appearances are the most talked about. So this year, 50% of the Super Bowl ads contained at least one celebrity (Forbes). In fact, many ads had multiple celebrities, and I can only imagine how expensive locking down all of those A/B list celebrities must have cost for these brands. Just look at Uber Eats, T-Mobile, and Dunkin's “Dunkings” ad.
While these celebrity spots were entertaining and humorous, the heavy lean on celebrities may come across as having a lack of creativity and quality storytelling. However, there were ads that didn’t rely on celebrity endorsements at all, and those were the most powerful ads.
Let’s look at the Google Pixel ad. The spot highlights how the device can help a visually impaired person take photos to document some of life’s biggest moments. The message was clear, the storytelling was exceptional, and it certainly was a memorable ad. It also differentiated Google Pixel from other devices in the market.
Additionally, Dove, partnering with Nike, had a powerful message that focused on body confidence by encouraging girls to stay in sports. This ad focused on the alarming statistic that 45% of girls quit sports due to low body confidence. The message was uplifting and empowering, which fits seamlessly with both Dove and Nike’s brands.
We’ve been predicting this for a while now: People love social media, and thus, more social experiences outside of the walled gardens. We've placed our bets on bringing the most authentic social experiences to TV with Social CTV ads. But it's always incredible to see how other brands are incorporating these social experiences in their ads. In fact, there were a few Super Bowl ads that included some of these social aspects.
Let’s look at Snap’s ad (a version of which also aired during the Grammy’s the week prior). It’s an interesting take on the brand’s messaging, as many think of Snapchat as a social media platform. But in this particular ad, it looks like Snap is trying to position itself as the most authentic social media platform.
And with apps used for messaging and group chats gaining traction among Gen Z, this campaign clearly appeals to them (“less ‘friends’, more friends”). Gen Z wants more authenticity, and a handful are opting for options to bring them that authenticity, like switching to flip phones and engaging in smaller group chats with close friends.
However, this appeal to be less social and more authentic doesn’t exactly align in my opinion. Social media and authenticity don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Social media gives people the opportunity to be as authentic as they wish and express themselves in whatever way they want.
Also, we would be remiss not to mention Beyonce’s spot with Verizon. With Beyonce’s level of stardom, she “breaks the Internet” quite often, but the message here was that even she couldn’t “break” Verizon’s network through several viral moments that were shared across social platforms. It’s a compelling ad that very much leverages the power of social media in today’s digital landscape.
To view a full recap of all of the Super Bowl ads from this year, check out Adweek’s rundown.
