These were the 8 best Super Bowl ads in 2023. Here's why, according to hard data from Ipsos.

For many of us, the commercials are the highlight of the Super Bowl: Brands bring their A game (and their A++ budgets). This year we saw an avalanche of celebrities, references to movies and shows, and musical hijacking, while tearjerkers and purpose-oriented ads were missing.

PopCorners was the leader of leaders: It has the highest creative effectiveness we have measured of the last three Super Bowls. 

Ipsos leveraged its depth and breadth to analyze the ads through both traditional and cutting-edge methods – from surveys to social listening to live communities. Ipsos combined four different data sources to provide a fast, agile and accurate look at the holistic performance of Super Bowl commercials:

• Creative | Spark: 22 Super Bowl ads and trailers were selected for robust evaluation on Ipsos' ad-testing platform, with a sample size of 150 general population respondents per ad. Creative | Spark fuels the creative process by helping advertisers and agencies quickly learn, evaluate and optimize creative to power brand growth. 
• Ipsos Online Communities: We used our syndicated community, Fresh Lab, of 6,000 members across the United States to track real-time ad sentiment during the Super Bowl through a series of discussions and video feedback.
• Fast Facts: After the game, Ipsos surveyed 1,000 adults on its Ipsos Digital platform. Fast Facts lets you create your survey questions and get fast answers from our quality sample. View results in an interactive dashboard, export charts in PowerPoint or tables in Excel.
• SIA+Synthesio: The Ipsos Social Intelligence Analytics and Synthesio team used their AI-enabled consumer intelligence platform to track and analyze 2.2 million Super Bowl-related social mentions. 

This combination of approaches provides a more robust and nuanced picture of Super Bowl success, leading us to our eight awards for the top performing ads of Super Bowl LVII in 2023.

Want more insights? Join us Thursday, Feb. 16, for a complimentary webinar exploring the data behind these winning Super Bowl 2023 ads and more.

The Happy CFO Award: PopCorners

 

This ad merits a broad smile from the CFO of Frito-Lay this morning. The use of the “Breaking Bad” theme and characters hooked viewers early and kept them highly engaged throughout. This ad is very likely to keep people talking, based on its outstanding social power, a good thing since it has the highest sales potential of any Super Bowl ad tested in the last three years, with a Creative Effect Index of 216 – far above the average of 70 to 130.

Did you know: Ads that deliver a high Creative Effect Index deliver 44% greater sales lift vs. poor performers. Learn more about Creative | Spark here.

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Best Celebrity Sighting: Dunkin’

 

While celebrities abound in this year’s game, “Bennifer” stood out as a pair working on multiple levels to drive effectiveness for Dunkin’. Consumers recognized Ben as a legitimate Dunkin’ drinker thanks to constant paparazzi photos of him enjoying the brand, Ipsos Online Communities feedback found. Jennifer Lopez’s inclusion tapped into both nostalgia and current pop culture simultaneously, according to Creative | Spark data. This resulted in the highest volume of social mentions by total conversation volume during the game and Ben Affleck being the most discussed celebrity cameo in Synthesio's AI-enabled consumer intelligence data. 

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Misfit Award: Tubi

 

Tubi delivered some of the most polarizing and stand-out advertising of the night, earning our Misfit Award. Some related quite strongly to the “rabbit hole” concept, while others were left confused. Nonetheless, this tactic managed to earn breakthrough from viewers in Creative | Spark testing, and generated a strong social response. The follow-up convention-breaking tactic in the fourth quarter, showing a fake smart TV interface interrupting the game, had us all yelling at the TV and reaching for our remotes, resulting in the highest amount of negative mentions in Synthesio's social-listening data. 

Did you know: Ads that conform to category convention are less likely to leave a branded impression. Learn more about “Misfits” in our Ipsos report here.

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Best Brand Partnership: GM & Netflix

 

Viewers felt the collaboration between electrical vehicle innovation (GM) and content (Netflix) was attention-grabbing and entertaining, according to members of our online community. In our Creative | Spark testing, this ad was highly memorable, and our live community gave it the greatest brand partnership recognition and among the highest success scores at 8.57/10. “It helps me to see that EV technology is here to stay and is becoming part of the 'norm,’” said one member of our online community.

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Best Use of Nostalgia: Disney

 

Celebrating 100 is a big deal. And Disney wowed fans young and old with a dazzling look across all its movie franchises. A highly emotional story using a mix of clips, animation and even some voice over from Walt himself, the ad helped to drive very strong feelings for the brand with an Equity Effect Index of 184 in our Ipsos Creative | Spark testing.

Did you know: 43% in the US say that given the choice, they would prefer to have grown up at the time when their parents were children. Learn more in our forthcoming Ipsos Global Trends report, launching Feb. 20 at ipsosglobaltrends.com. 

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Nailed the Brief: Google Pixel 7

 

Google stuck to its strategy of leadership in picture technology. An engaging (and lengthy!) product demo shows its innovation and provides a strong competitive reason to switch. Our Creative | Spark data indicated that Google can expect solid sales impact, with a Creative Effect Index of 130, driven by a clearly understood message.

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Best Use of Brand Assets: Planters

 

The Planters mascot was on center stage, getting roasted by roastmaster Jeff Ross himself. The clever use of this highly recognizable brand asset kept the audience entertained and included a throwback to a previous big game spot. All jokes aside, this ad is one to snack on. A Creative Effect Index of 162 in Creative | Spark data shows its very strong short-term potential to drive sales.

Did you know: Ads with brand mascots are six times more likely to deliver high brand attention. Read more about "The power of you" here.

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Best Music Payback: T-Mobile

 

T-Mobile put John Travolta center stage with a highly entertaining musical number. Using "Grease" as the inspiration, he partnered with T-Mobile celebs Zach Braff and Donald Faison to sing their hearts out. The result: T-Mobile earned fifth place in unaided brand recall in our Ipsos.Digital platform. And the audience rewarded the performance with high marks for both brand performance and affinity, as shown in the equity effect index result of 163 in Creative | Spark data.

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Most Inclusive: No Award Given

Nearly all people of color in our online community felt that they could not relate to the people in the ads this year. Some expressed a longing for more diversity, and though they enjoyed brands’ use of celebrities, felt their lifestyles aren’t comparable to the lives of everyday people, hindering relevant and authentic representation, according to responses from our Ipsos Online Communities.

Did you know: Ads that deliver positive portrayal of people of color are more effective at driving business results. Read more here, in our report on Ipsos' exclusive Racial Equality Measure ad-testing index.

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Want a deeper dive into the ads? Join us Thursday, Feb. 16, for a complimentary webinar as Ipsos teams explore what made these 8 ads the winners at the Super Bowl in 2023.