Winning ads and trends
Growing ad revenues have made the average cost of a 30-second ad-spot skyrocket in the last two decades – leading to a seven-million-dollar price tag for Super Bowl 2024, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. Anticipation around Super Bowl LVIII was especially acute, given the fanfare surrounding Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift. The “Taylor Swift effect” has already been credited with increasing the NFL’s viewership and left its mark on the Super Bowl.After a Crypto-ruled 2022 and a booze-buoyed 2023, Super Bowl 2024 was all about cheerful fare, comforting snacks, and ensemble celebrity casts – a shift seen as a response to current global uncertainties. All these elements are present in Bud Light’s “Bud Light Genie” ad, a comeback attempt one year after its marketing with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney caused a boycott among conservative consumers.
Booking.com’s "Melissa McCarthy in 'Somewhere, Anywhere'" was the ruler of Super Bowl 2023, with more than 128 million global online views of McCarthy singing out her wanderlust in a variety of locations. When it came to brand popularity among viewers, M&Ms and a cohort of its snack peers, including Doritos, Pringles, and Planters had Super Bowl 2023 in a chokehold.
Winning over the viewers
The connection between ads and the Super Bowl viewer experience cannot be discounted, as proven by the fact that three out of 10 Americans said the commercials were their favorite part of the show. Furthermore, more than five out of 10 Americans said that funny ads were their favorite type of Super Bowl commercial.Over the last decade, the Super Bowl and the NFL have also been at the center of discussions and controversies around social justice, such as the “take the knee” protests by former quarterback Colin Kaepernick. In 2019, rapper and businessperson Jay Z entered a multi-year partnership with the NFL to support social justice efforts. The issue resonated with Super Bowl viewers, with more than six out of 10 deeming it appropriate for brands to promote social justice in their ads.
The NFL is recovering from its reputational woes and is enjoying an upswing in Super Bowl interest. The ongoing surge in views will keep the ad arms race very heated, with commercials that will have to keep moving with the zeitgeist (courtesy of celeb power and escapism) and know no parsimony when it comes to opening their wallets.
