Innovid’s Super Bowl MVPs (Most Valuable Promoters)

On Super Sunday there were many MVPs. Patrick Mahomes was the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player. Usher, the halftime act, was also an MVP (Most Valuable Performer). 

A lot of ink, effort, and analysis goes into determining the night’s other MVPs (Most Valuable Promoters). Who were the winners of the TV commercial cage match? Who were the triumphant brands in the battle for Super Bowl ad supremacy? And which celebrities and promoted TV shows broke through? 

We want answers! 

So during this year’s Super Bowl, Innovid’s data research team went to work, analyzing the performance of brands, based on a handful of factors, including the online actions viewers took in the wake of the airing and/or streaming of their spot. 

Our team arrived at this stellar list of top 10 advertisers during Sunday’s Super Bowl by analyzing the relative lift in online engagement. 

A few thoughts about this top 10. Pfizer’s first-ever Super Bowl ad featured a QR code for those who watched on a streaming platform. It’s a sign of things to come that an interactive ad cracked the top 10.  

Martin Scorcese directed and appeared in Squarespace’s No. 1 30-second spot, which makes the case that he can make shorter films.

Scorcese’s Squarespace ad was one of six in our top 10 that featured celebrities. That does not, however, mean that celebrities are a springboard to Super Bowl advertising success. It just means the Super Bowl was like four-hour red carpet with celebrities everywhere you turned. Forbes reported that more than 50% of this year’s spots featured celebrities ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Cardi B. 

Interestingly, two of the top five celebrities on our list of the rich and famous who received the biggest online engagement bump played notable “Rocky” opponents. Mr. T was “Clubber Lang” and the late Carl Weathers was “Apollo Creed.” 

There’s no better place to advertise a TV show than to more than 100 million people already watching TV. CBS/Paramount+ didn’t waste the opportunity to promote its slate of great television. The shows listed below saw the highest percentage lift in online engagement. 

The Super Bowl is an astonishing mixture of sports, music, commerce, and celebrity. If you can’t wait until next year’s spectacle, here is some more Super Bowl reading about how streaming is transforming advertising and live sports. Read our related blog posts here and here.  

Learn more about how Innovid can be your guide for CTV advertising.