More than 70,000 fans were in attendance to watch the LA Rams best the Cincinnati Bengals and become the winners of Super Bowl 2022. Not only did more people watch the game in person this year – after Super Bowl 2021’s attendance was limited to about one-third of capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions – but more people also watched at home. Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers, mostly from research examining the digital impact of the commercials (as always, it’ll take some time to see what type of broader impact the commercials will have for advertising brands).

The following list highlights top advertising brands across various metrics – with sources and links provided. Following that list is another with more audience-focused data. As in previous years, it’s worth noting that there’s no clear-cut winner by way of the following metrics – some seemed to do better in some areas than others…

  • Most viewed ad online: Nissan’s “Thrill Driver” with roughly 46.6 million views across top video platforms and websites between February 9-16. It is followed by Flamin’ Hot (Doritos/Cheetos)’s “Push It” (31.4 million) and “Mind Reader” from Amazon (30.2 million). Source: AcuityAds.
  • Top ad on YouTube: Amazon’s “Mind Reader” had the most views on YouTube’s AdBlitz channel through 10 PM ET on game day. Source: YouTube, as reported by Variety.
  • Top ad by likability score: Frito Lay/Cheetos’ “Push it”. This spot had a likability score of 791 – based on a scoring range of 1-950 and compares favorability to the norm of the last five Super Bowls, the average of which was 638. This top ad by likeability is followed by Nissan’s “Presenting: Thrill Driver” (787, 23% higher than the norm) and Netflix’s “New Movies Every Week” (756; 18% higher than the norm). Source: iSpot.tv.
  • USA Today Ad Meter Winner: “Dream House with Anna Kendrick and Barbie” from Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage. This spot took the top ranking with an average Ad Meter rating of 6.82 out of 10. Amazon’s “Mind Reader” (6.77) took the #2 spot, while “Push It” from Doritos/Cheetos (6.73) followed at #3. Source: USA Today.
  • Most-loved ad: “Push It” from Doritos/Cheetos. Morning Consult’s Most-Loved Ads Score was derived from a survey conducted the day after the Super Bowl asking respondents to rank ads on a scale of 0-6 with 0 being “can’t recall” and 6 being “loved.” The Doritos/Cheetos’ ad featuring forest animals and the Salt-N-Pepper hit “Push It” achieved the highest score of 3.89. In second place, Budweiser’s “A Clydesdale’s Journey” received a score of 3.73. Source: Morning Consult.
  • Crypto brands with the most social mentions during the game: Research from Nielsen shows that more than one-third of NFL fans are planning to buy cryptocurrency in the next 6 months. During the Super Bowl, FTX’s ad not only generated the most mentions (230.6K) of all the crypto ads, but also had the largest share of voice (6.4K). Source: Talkwalker 
  • Top “misfit” ad by social listening and AI: Staying on cryptocurrency a bit longer, Coinbase took a decidedly different approach to the usual high-dollar ads featured during the Super Bowl with a very scaled-down one-minute ad that features a floating and color-changing QR code with 80s techno-music playing in the background. (Yep, that’s it.) For their money, Coinbase’s ad brought in the highest number of mentions on social media and, apparently, crashed their website. Source: Ipsos.
  • Top brand mentioned around the Super Bowl: Coinbase. Using the search query of “Super Bowl”, “#Superbowl”, “the big game” or “#SuperBowlLVI” on Twitter between February 1-13, Coinbase garnered the most tweets (33,663) and engagements (267,126). Source: Sprout Social.
  • Twitter Brand-Bowl MVP: Pepsi. Repeating its performance from both the 2020 Super Bowl and 2021 Super Bowl, this brand has once again driven the largest amount of overall Twitter conversations compared to other brands during the game. Not only did it get fans talking during the half-time show, but it had NFT giveaways and offered exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the half-time show. Source: Twitter
  • Top advertisers for brand equity: WeatherTech. Per Harris Poll, the brand bowl index “uses Harris Brand Platform data to measure the growth in each advertiser’s brand equity from pre-Super Bowl (January 31, 2022 – February 12, 2022), to post-Super Bowl (February 13, 2022 – February 15, 2022). The change in equity captures whether a brand’s Super Bowl ad effectively increased consumers’ perceived value of the company.” WeatherTech saw 8.0 growth between pre-Super Bowl (35.7) and post-Super Bowl (43.7). Disney+ had the second-highest growth (7.4). Source: Harris Poll.
  • Top ad by search engagement: Polestar. The Swedish automaker is new to the Super Bowl. Its ad promoting its latest electric vehicle was deemed to be 23 times more effective at driving searches than the median Super Bowl LVI ad. Source: EDO.
  • Ad with the highest brand impact score: Turbo Tax. DISQO’s brand impact score is based on online behaviors such as search and site visits related to this year’s Super Bowl advertisers among more than 19,000 US adults between February 6-14. Per the report, “each advertiser was given an impact score based on two factors: ad recall and lift vs. pre-game digital behaviors. Those scores were then combined to arrive at a total impact score for each brand.” Turbo Tax is followed by Amazon Prime Video (#2) and Peacock at #3. Source: DISQO.
  • Audience-Focused Data

  • This year, 72% of homes with TVs in use on Super Bowl Sunday were tuned into the Super Bowl telecast. Preliminary estimates from Nielsen — including data from out-of-home viewing and Digital in TV Ratings (DTVR) contributions — found that the game drew an average of 99 million viewers, up from last year’s event, which brought in an average of 92 million viewers on NBC. That total goes up when adding in the estimated average of 1.9 million viewers who viewed the game on Telemundo. Source: Nielsen.
  • NBCUniversal streamed the Super Bowl to an average-minute audience of 6 million across streaming devices. Citing data from NBCU, this is a 5% gain in streaming audience compared to 2021 and a 76% increase over the 3.4 million live stream viewers in 2020. Source: Light Reading.
  • More than three-quarters of the time spent streaming the Super Bowl happened on the big screen, either on a connected TV device (CTV; 38.4%) or on a Smart TV (33.5%). Of that big screen viewing time, Roku was the big winner when it comes to streaming devices, accounting for 36.3% of Super Bowl big screen viewing time. Other notable devices were Amazon Fire TV (19.4% share) and Samsung TV (12.8%). Source: Conviva.
  • Overall, audiences had a positive reaction to Super Bowl LVI, with Spiketrap reporting that the overall audience sentiment score was 63 (out of 100). Additionally, data shows that conversations relating to the game were also fairly safe, rating low in toxicity but higher in profanity. Source: Spiketrap.
  • Pre-Game Research

    After 21 weeks of play (18 weeks of the regular season and 3 weeks of playoff games), the Super Bowl 56 contenders have been decided, with the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals meeting at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. And, while the stadium is expected to be full this year, fewer fans plan to tune in to the game this year than last. A survey of more than 7,700 US adults conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) indicates that 184.5 million adults plan to watch. That’s about 2 million fewer viewers than last year’s projected viewership of 186.6 million.

    While fewer adults plan to view the game, retail spending surrounding the event is expected to increase from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $14.6 billion this year. The average spending per person is estimated to be $78.92, which is still below the average spend seen pre-pandemic, but more than last year’s $74.55. Following a well-established trend, the most popular spending area, for 79% of viewers, will be food and beverage, with team apparel and accessories being a distant second, at 11%.

    It’s worth noting that results from a Morning Consult survey come to a different conclusion: in fact, the study suggests that adult viewership will be at its highest since 2019, with two-thirds of adults planning to tune in. The increase in planned viewership from last year (61%) is attributed to an increase in younger viewers, with more Gen Z and Millennial adults planning to watch the game.

    Meanwhile, only a slight majority (55%) of Super Bowl viewers are most interested in the game itself, per an NCSolutions survey of roughly 2,000 respondents, with about one-quarter (26%) most interested in the halftime show and about one-fifth (19%) in the ads.

    Super Bowl Ad Stats

    Super Bowl ad prices are expected to rise for Super Bowl 56, with the average expected price for a 30-second spot reaching $6.5 million, per the latest research published by Kantar. This is up from the record $5.5 million per 30-second ad seen last year for Super Bowl 55.

    Looking back to last year’s Super Bowl, in-game ad revenue brought in a total of $434.5 million, which is less than the $448.7 million in ad revenue from Super Bowl 54.

    Here are some other stats from Kantar’s latest annual analysis:

    • Although ad spend for the Automotive category was $20 million less than it was in 2020, this category remained the top advertising category for 2021. Automotive was followed by the Beer & Wine and Financial categories. Kantar also notes that the Restaurants category saw spending of $33 million, which is the first time the category had double-digit spending in the millions. 
    • Anheuser-Busch InBev remained at the top of the Super Bowl spenders list in 2021. This is despite the company spending $10 million less than what it spent in 2020. 
    • After testing more than 90 Super Bowl ads from 2021, Kantar’s analysis shows that “Strong” (based on creative effectiveness) Super Bowl ads saw three times the ROI and 40% higher ad recall than “Average” Super Bowl ads. 

    More Pre-Game Data

    • The pandemic put a damper on consumers attending or holding Super Bowl parties last year. In 2021, fewer than half of consumers who typically attend or host a Super Bowl party surveyed by Morning Consult said they were very (26%) or somewhat (20%) likely to attend or host a Super Bowl party. In what looks like a return to normal, this year, about 7 in 10 consumers who typically attend or host a Super Bowl party are very (40%) or somewhat (31%) likely to do so this year.
    • With streaming becoming the preferred way of watching TV, data from Adtaxi indicates that digital will account for almost half (49%) of the total Super Bowl audience this year. They won’t all just be watching the game either. Some 46% of Americans will be interacting with other media while watching the game, including 3 in 10 (31%) using social media, 15% visiting sports websites and 8% using online forums. 
    • Speaking of social media, data from Hootsuite and The Drum shows that top Super Bowl advertisers Avocados From Mexico and Pepsi were two of the most talked about brands on social media. PepsiCo garnered 20,700 mentions on social media between September 2021 and the end of January 2022, with 4 in 10 (39% of) those mentions indicating positive feelings and only 1% indicating negative feelings. Avocados From Mexico had 10,600 mentions on social media during the same time period. Of those mentions, 64% were positive, with the remaining mentions indicating neutral sentiment. 
    Chart-Library-Ad-1

    Explore More Articles.

    Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

    Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

    9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

    Marketing Charts Logo

    Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

    Sign up for our free newsletter.

    You have Successfully Subscribed!

    Pin It on Pinterest

    Share This