New York Times READ

Top Super Bowl 2023 Advertisers That Dominated the Buzz: Who Made the Cut?

Published by Engagement Labs February 21, 2023

SuperBowlLVII

Super Bowl LVII was the third most watched television program in history with 113 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Advertisers all want to score a touchdown, but many will just settle for field goals. In other words, these advertisers may enjoy a surge in buzz on social media or a bump in YouTube views, but they will not be able to reach a level of performance that outweighs the cost of their investment.  So, the question is: How do advertisers score a touchdown?

In marketing, brands must drive multiple metrics to be successful. Research shows that online and offline conversation, together, drive about 19% of purchases. Online conversations alone drive less than half of those purchases, essentially a field goal. This means that offline conversations are key to scoring a touchdown.

Which brands enjoyed not only a surge in online buzz, but also a lift in offline conversation? One of the biggest winners in 2023 was E-Trade with +350% lift in both offline and online conversations.  E-Trade’s advertisement featured the return of the iconic talking babies as adult investors, which drove discussion of this humorous content both in person and on social media.

WHICH SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS SCORED A TOUCHDOWN - ENGAGEMENT LABS

Pepsi Zero Sugar had huge success generating conversation, especially online.  Pepsi Zero Sugar’s advertisements featured Steve Martin and Ben Stiller and asked consumers to engage with Pepsi and determine if the actors were “real or acting.”  This clear call to action led to Pepsi Zero Sugar’s online social buzz lifting +3,000%, coupled with an equally impressive offline lift of 300%. 

Another big winner was Heineken with around a 300% lift both offline and online conversation.  The importance of this win is two-fold -- Heineken made its mark airing the first national commercial in the Super Bowl for a non alcoholic beer, plus 2023 marks the first time in decades that Anheuser-Busch competitors could advertise nationally during the Super Bowl. Avocados From Mexico, Coors Light, Intuit’s TurboTax, Michelob Ultra, NFL, Planters and Tubi round out the top 10 list of brands making their mark in offline and online conversation. 

While we just explored brands winning in both the offline and online sense, there are other brands that were highly successful at driving online buzz through their Super Bowl ad, with a lower level of performance offline.  These advertisers include Crown Royal, Bud Light, Doritos, Rakuten, T-Mobile, Dunkin' and WeatherTech.  For these Super Bowl advertisers who excelled at creating buzz online, there is an opportunity to evaluate marketing to give the brand a better chance at earning additional offline conversation. Our research shows that there are levers marketers can pull to improve performance across both channels. These include ensuring the advertising is strongly branded and includes a ‘buzzworthy’ message that is easy to remember and talk about and has a call to action. 

WHICH SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS SCORED A FIELD GOAL - ENGAGEMENT LABS

Contact us to learn more on how other Super Bowl advertisers performed and about Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial data, insights and how it can help you evaluate the full value of your sports sponsorship and marketing ROI.

SIGN ME UP Super Bowl Report & Briefing