Emotion, excitement and entertainment: A look at Super Bowl LII Ads

Super Bowl LII was held right in my backyard (proud resident of the Bold North here!) so while I’m not an avid football fan, I followed the events closely this year. Having the game at U.S. Bank stadium filled me with a little Minnesota pride. But other than that – and Justin Timberlake’s halftime show – I went to the Super Bowl party for my mother-in-law’s chili and the commercials.

Super Bowl LII registered 103.4 million viewers. It’s no surprise that the most widely watched sporting event of the year consistently produces some of the most entertaining commercials. Here’s a look at two studies focused on this year’s commercials, conducted by Ipsos and Jumpstart Automotive Media, a division of Hearst Autos.

Ipsos tested all of the commercials during Super Bowl LII in real-time with ranking based on System 1 reactions, according to a recent press release. Ipsos recruited 45 football fans split between the Eagles and Patriots to watch the game in a theater in New York City. Each participant wore biometric sensors that measured their emotional arousal based on galvanic skin response. Tide beat out spots from the NFL at No. 2 and M&Ms at No. 3 rankings on Ipsos Super Scores.

According to Elissa Moses, CEO, Ipsos Neuro and Behavioral Science Center, the four key drivers of great ads are:

• The first five seconds reflect an ad’s ability to hook viewers emotionally.
• The last five seconds reveal excitement over the major brand reveal.
• The average arousal over the course of the ad, meaning overall excitement power.
• The highest ad scene peak telling which ads brought viewers to the highest summit of emotion.

Tide ran a different spot in each quarter. The ads, produced by Saatchi & Saatchi New York for packaged goods giant Procter & Gamble, were humorous nods to other brands and commercials but focused on the clean clothing the characters were wearing. Tide’s third quarter ad featuring sibling brand Mr. Clean being replaced by Tide stand-in David Harbour, was the highest-scoring spot of the more than 75 ads tested, according to Ipsos.

Shaun Dix, executive vice president of Ipsos Connect said, "The first 45-second spot scored lowest but once the audience got the joke, it set up the success of the other three spots and built engagement throughout the game. It was a case study in itself, in building a campaign that delivers more than the sum of its parts.”

In a post-study questionnaire one panelist said, “It had me thinking every ad was a Tide ad.”

“The Super Bowl featured commercials that used every trick in the book from celebrities to babies to robots designed to entertain and grab attention. But this year the continuing story of Tide doing double duty to give homage to other P&G brands as well as using behavioral science concepts of association to link to other brands’ ads brought advertising virtuosity to a new height,” said Moses.

Jumpstart Automotive Media also released its annual Super Bowl report, which reveals the auto brands that drove the greatest traffic increases across its portfolio of publishers. This year, the Kia Stinger saw the greatest lift in shopper interest as a result of its “Feel Something Again” spot featuring Steven Tyler.

The big game saw advertising from several car brands during pre-game, the halftime show and the game itself, including Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Lexus, Ram, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz.

The following lists the top performers, as found in the company’s recent press release:

Libby Murad-Patel, vice president marketing and strategic insights for Jumpstart said, “This year’s ad spots had a mix of brand alignments, emotion, nostalgia and entertainment, but the brands that saw the most success were those that really showcased the vehicle’s performance. They did a fantastic job driving increased shopper interest among both in-market shoppers and car enthusiasts alike.”