The Super Bowl teaches us a lot about healthy competition each year, but it doesn’t always play out on the football field.
The biggest game-day face-offs happen when commentators send us to a commercial break. Brands spend millions on advertisements, trying to get more views, leads, and revenue than the other brands in their industry advertising on the same day.
Despite their high budgets, we can still learn a lot from the top Super Bowl ads, especially when we know what stands out to viewers. So, I surveyed over 150 U.S. consumers and asked them about their favorite big-game ads from Super Bowl LVIII within four major product categories and why they stood out to them.
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The 4 Most Popular 2024 Super Bowl Ads, According to 150+ Viewers
Below, I’ll go over four consumer favorites and takeaways that any marketer can leverage to fend off the biggest competition, even if you’re a small business video marketer.
Consumers' Favorite Food and Beverage Commercial
Budweiser - 'Old School Delivery'
Consumers' favorite ad from a food and beverage company this year is Budweiser’s Old School Delivery.
A local bar runs out of Budweiser and highway closures make a restock impossible. The brand’s recognizable Clydesdales save the day as delivery men load kegs onto a tractor they pull. Visibility is low and they get lost, but a local dog finds them in the snow and guides them back to the bar to make their delivery.
I think Budweiser’s ads are a great lesson on the impact of storytelling in advertising. Instead of highlighting the beer, the ads tell a memorable story with a well-recognized animal friend pairing, and the narrative is an exciting break from a saturated stream of food brands, which stands out with consumers. The Clydesdale and Yellow Lab duo is a Budweiser classic, and the familiarity of the pairing likely adds to its high performance.
All of Budweiser’s ads, Super Bowl and otherwise, are excellent examples for learning about storytelling. It created one of the most memorable ads I’ve ever seen — the drunk driving PSA where a dog waits for his dad to come home but he never does.
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Consumers' Favorite Technology and eCommerce Commercial
Booking.com - Tina Fey Twins
This year, Tina Fey Twins from Booking.com was consumers' favorite technology and eCommerce-related ad.
In the ad, Fey scrolls through hotel options on the website but can’t decide because every option is excellent. Her solution is to hire body doubles to stay at all of her favorites, and she lives vicariously through them.
The twist is that the twins she hires are her former cast members on 30 Rock, which, to viewers who love the show, inspires nostalgia and the feeling of running into an old friend.
Nowadays, as consumers shy away from ads that feel too salesy, I think this ad is a great lesson. Most of us can’t afford to hire body doubles, but we can certainly recognize the beautiful settings in the ad, telling us that Booking.com is the best place to book our next destination vacation.
Consumers' Favorite Automobile Commercial
Volkswagen - An American Love Story
Consumer’s favorite automobile Super Bowl ad this year is An American Love Story from Volkswagen. It takes us on a trip down memory lane, from the import of the first Volkswagen Beetle to depictions of its cars in pop culture and American life over the last 75 years.
It’s a great example of how to appeal to a larger audience with your ads. It speaks to the everyday person who needs a durable and well-made car rather than nodding to the select few who opt for a fast-driving sports car.
It also expertly tugs at viewers' nostalgia by teasing the return of the Westfalia, its classic VW camper van, in the last few moments of the ad. It even appealed to me, even though I was about 60 years too late to the model’s heyday when I asked my parents why they couldn’t just buy one of those “fun cars” for our camping trip.
Consumers' Favorite Commercial Relating to Entertainment.
Dunkin' - The DunKings'
For years, Ben Affleck has jokingly been referred to as Dunkin’s unofficial spokesperson — dating back to his 1997 breakout role in Good Will Hunting.
In 2023, he took over a Dunkin’ drive-thru in a Super Bowl commercial, and consumers told us it was one of their favorite ads of the night. Affleck partnered with his favorite coffee shop again this year, along with Jennifer Lopez (Affleck’s wife), Matt Damon, Tom Brady, Jack Harlow, and Fat Joe.
In the video, Affleck crashes Lopez’s recording studio session and dances and raps at her. Just as it did last year, it ends with Lopez giving him a stern look as she says, “We talked about this.”
I think the popularity of this ad stems from Affleck’s genuine love of Dunkin’, and his and Lopez’s high-profile but short-lived relationship in the early 2000s. The public loved Bennifer (their couple name) and was elated when they reunited in 2021.
Yes, most brands probably don’t have the budget to book multiple A-list celebrities for their ad campaigns, but it’s still possible to leverage influencer marketing as Dunkin’ did. If you know of an influencer in your niche who constantly uses your products or shouts out your brand, feature them in your next campaign.
HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. HubSpot will share the information you provide to us with the following partners, who will use your information for similar purposes: Search Engine Journal, Litmus, Rock Content. You can unsubscribe from communications from HubSpot at any time. For more information, check out HubSpot's Privacy Policy. To unsubscribe from Search Engine Journal's communications, see Search Engine Journal's Privacy Policy. To unsubscribe from Litmus's communications, see Litmus's Privacy Policy. To unsubscribe from Rock Content's communications, see Rock Content's Privacy Policy.
The State of Marketing in 2024
HubSpot's Annual Inbound Marketing Trends Report
- Top Marketing Channels
- AI in Marketing
- Managing Privacy
- The Future of Marketing
Takeaways for Video Marketers
The four ads above competed with 59 other commercials aired during the Super Bowl. With such significant competition, what made them stand out? Here’s what consumers told me:
1. Humor
Some Super Bowl ads have heavier tones and still resonate with consumers, but the top reason consumers favorite ads from this year won audiences over is that they were funny and made them laugh. The humor factor, especially in the Super Bowl, is a factor many advertisers strive for.
2. Entertainment
You only have so much time to capture (and keep attention), so entertainment value is crucial. Given this, it makes sense that this was another factor consumers considered when picking their favorite ads.
3. Celebrities and Influencers
Well-known celebrities and stars are another influence on consumer ad preferences. This isn’t surprising, as consumers place a lot of trust in the recommendations of influencers and celebrities when making purchase decisions.
Other notable mentions that make these Super Bowl ads, and ads in general, stand out to consumers include:
- Emotional appeal
- Relatability and relevance of ads to their interests
- Originality and creativity
- Ads with a good message
Over to You
The ads that consumers preferred were from brands that leaned into creativity, humor, and entertainment to capture attention, and it paid off.
Yes, the Super Bowl is a costly event, but even without a million dollars, you can keep these themes in mind and stay within your budget to create video content that caters to consumers and draws your audiences in.
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