Super Bowl Ads Preview: 5 creative trends that could create a viral winner

In an era dominated by ad-skipping, multi-screening, and content fragmentation, the challenge for today’s marketer is no longer just “Who am I reaching?” but “Am I reaching them at all?” In the U.S., the last bastion of mass advertising and guaranteed eyeballs stands: live sports.

Sports ignite passion, nostalgia, positivity, and community. Sports sit at the intersection of culture. Fans are leaned in and fully invested in the moment. And those moments transcend and spark conversations in stadiums, in living rooms, and online. The brands that can tap into these moments in sports in an authentic way can build meaningful connection.

2026 will be a big year for sports in America:

We’re kicking off with the Super Bowl – the highest stakes game for advertisers. NBCUniversal sold out all inventory back in September, with prices speculated to have spiked to $8 million for 30 seconds. It can be very difficult for brands to gain attention – we’ve observed that more than half of Super Bowl ads achieve less than 1% brand recall the morning after the game. Each year we look forward to seeing which brands will score a touchdown, throw a Hail Mary, whichever football pun you’d prefer. But at Ipsos, we’re focused on learning from these ads by assessing them with real viewers, as the strategies attempted here set the stage for the rest of the year.

Top 5 things we’re watching for in 2026:

1. We’ll be on the edge of our seats watching closely for a return to strategy and craft. With the rise of creators and many companies overly focused on performance metrics, brands are losing control of a lot of their content. Creative agency partners are dealing with a lot of uncertainty in the job market and many major re-structures.. We expect and hope to see some advertisers respond by swinging back heavily towards strategic rigor and craft in the face of this disruption, using advertising’s biggest stage to demonstrate how much human insights & creativity matter.

2. In 2025 we predicted that we had reached peak use of celebrity and that brands may start to move away from buying attention through star power. The ‘celebrity effect’ is fading. Ipsos data reveals that celebrity distinctive assets – once 2.8x more effective in our 2020 analysis – now offer zero additional lift for Brand Attention. Look out for new distinctive assets learnings dropping this spring!

3. We think more brands will take advantage of the 360 experience to create an immersive connection with the audience. According to Ipsos research with TikTok, 90% of sports viewers use social/video platforms to watch or engage with sports moments. Per the Ipsos Global Influentials study that focuses on the top 20% of income and business leaders in 40+ markets, 40% of influential Americans have traveled for a live sporting event in the past 12 months. We’ll be looking to see how advertisers lean into the total brand experience and create seamless connections across big screen, small screen, and at the event itself.

4. We’ll continue to see some brands gain mental availability easily in the moment because they consistently show up. Brands that are ongoing sponsors of sports solidify recognition and association over time. Find out more about how to make the most of your sponsorship in our Game, Set, Sponsor! Playbook.

5. We hope to see more diversity and more authentic portrayals of women in this year’s ads. People of color were not present in nearly 40% of the ads that aired in the 2025 Super Bowl. Everyday people noticed, with 17% feeling the commercials were less diverse, an increase from 11% in 2024 based on our FastFacts study conducted immediately following the game. Ipsos’ creative assessment database shows that ads which feature diverse characters and those that deliver more positive portrayal of female characters are more effective. The Super Bowl is more than just a game; it’s a reflection of America. As corporations spend millions for seconds of airtime, they should remember they are not just selling products, but also presenting an image of who we are as a society. That image should be one where the faces in commercials reflect the rich diversity of the nation watching.

Ipsos’ playbook for leveraging research for a successful Super Bowl run:

Join us for the Ipsos Post-Game Show: Ads Edition!

We’re revealing our award winners and breaking down why they won. Get fresh takes from industry leaders and the "how-it-happened" stories directly from the brands and agencies behind the big game’s top spots.

When: Monday, Feb 9 | 4pm ET / 1pm PT

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