This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched telecast ever, reaching 123.7 million views. The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers beat last year’s viewership by 7%. Some say Taylor Swift’s presence in the stands, who was there to support the Chief’s tight end and boyfriend Travis Kelce, contributed to the bump in viewers.
While many tuned in for a competitive game, others came for the ads. Every year, the Super Bowl is an advertising juggernaut, with research suggesting ads cost an average of $7 million per 30-second spot. Between TV ads and organic content flooding social channels, there’s a lot to analyze.
BrandGraph highlights some fascinating statistics and trends from Super Bowl LVIII.
Fast stats about the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is always one of the most anticipated events on TV. As people sat down to see the game, usually with their phone in hand to scroll social channels while watching, some interesting statistics surfaced.
BrandGraph shows:
- Out of the 500 most talked about brands in February, the Super Bowl ranked 24th.
- The most searched keywords included “Super Bowl halftime performance,” “Super Bowl Time,” “NFL,” and “Patrick Mahomes.”
Since 95% of people have their phones in hand while watching TV, it’s unsurprising that content flooded social streams while the game was on.
What kind of content volume are we talking about? Take a look at the BrandGraph below that shows how the amount of content surrounding the Super Bowl shot up. The amount of organic content (represented in blue on the graph) surged from November 2023 to the midpoint of February.
As you’d expect, sponsored content (represented in green on the graph) also went up in February.
Marketing trends emerge
BrandGraph provides a wealth of data, which gives marketers the ability to spot trends. During the Super Bowl, several trends became evident, which were all supported by BrandGraph data. Take a look at that ad-based trends:
Star-studded casts in commercials
Celebrities always appear in Super Bowl ads, but this year, several ads showcased a whole cast of stars. Dunkin’ made a big splash with its “DunKings” commercial, which featured Tom Brady, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez, Fat Joe, and Jack Harlow. The 60-second spot generated a lot of buzz and pushed brand recognition higher, too. BrandGraph shows Dunkin’ held 6.85% of the share of voice in its category during the Feb. 11 game. The brand’s engagement rate surged in February.
Commercials embrace social
Buying an ad at the Super Bowl is a big deal, but marketers don’t treat it as a stand-alone ad anymore. Today’s marketers think beyond the air time and create ways for fans to engage with the brand after the commercial runs.
Bud Light, a perennial favorite at the Super Bowl that’s run commercials at the game since 1986, shared its “Bug Light Genie” commercial this year, which became a hit on social media. Using #BudLightGenie, many fans took to social to share their wishes for the Bug Light Genie.
If you look at brand-specific data for Bud Light, you can see the engagement rate for sponsored content (blue) and organic content (green) spiked.
More creators join the mix
Influencer marketing had its time to shine during the Super Bowl, too. Influencer Addison Rae appeared in a commercial for Nerds and helped the brand tease the ad on social.
Addison Rae, a popular dancer with 36M followers on Instagram and 88M on TikTok, shared a clip of training a mystery dancer on both of her channels before the game. By strategically partnering with an influencer and priming their audience for the commercial the day before, the brand got extra mileage out of its 30-second spot, which featured the brand’s dancing gummy cluster, and a closing shot of Addison Rae eating the candy.
The creative ad highlights the growing importance of influencers and the innovative ways brands are willing to incorporate them into their marketing strategies. Our full-service influencer marketing team can provide similar BrandGraph insights for clients. Reach out to our experts today.
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