Hasta La Creative!

Super Bowl LVII is in the books. But before we start counting down to the 2024 Big Game, set for Feb. 11, 2024, we bring you one final edition of the 2023 Super Bowl newsletter.

Who won the ad game?

The results are in—and the best news for chief marketing officers and agencies with ads in the game is that there are so many Super Bowl ad ranking services that you are likely to find at least one that praised your spot.

The USA Today Ad Meter remains the most widely cited scorecard, and it ranked The Farmer’s Dog’s spot first. Amazon, which also told a doggie story, came in third. Bud Light won the beer battle, according to the Ad Meter, which put the Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned brand’s ad in sixth place, ahead of competitor Molson Coors’ spot—which plugged Miller Lite, Coors Light and Blue Moon. It came in 16th.

As for Ad Age, our creativity editors loved the Amazon ad, followed by the NFL’S “Run with it,” Doritos’ “Try Another Angle,” General Motors’ “Why not an EV,” and the Ben Affleck spot from Dunkin’, which he both starred in and directed. 

Read more: 

The top 5 Super Bowl campaigns you need to know about right now

Super Bowl 2023 ad review—best and worst Big Game commercials

Inside the NFL’s fun, frenetic Super Bowl flag football campaign

But wait, there’s more …

Measurement firm EDO reports that its “proprietary brand performance data” ranked Warner Bros.’ trailer for “The Flash” as driving the most engagement. The revelation that the film will mark the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman drew tons of coverage. The “Het Gets Us” Jesus campaign drew the second-highest engagement for its “Love Your Enemy” spot. For more on how that campaign went over, check out our latest reporting here.

Meanwhile, iSpot.tv, which showed the ads to 500 people and had them gauge characteristics including likability, found ads from Jeep, Amazon, Disney and The Farmer’s Dog came out on top. Head here for more on iSpot’s full top 10.

While Booking.com’s Melissa McCarthy spot lagged in the Ad Meter, coming in 35th, the spot drew the most game-day views on YouTube, according to an analysis done by Allison PR. It also reports the phrase “is Bradley Cooper an Eagles fan” as a “breakout Google search during the game with +600% increase.” Other trending questions included “Who owns Blue Moon beer?”—a reference to the Molson Coors ad—and “Who invented football?” a nod to Crown Royal’s Canadian-themed ad.

Of the four auto ads that ran, Kia scored the best with its “Binky Dad” ad when it comes to spurring searches on Cars.com. The online auto site reports the brand saw a 230% spike in Cars.com traffic following the airing of its ad, followed by GM (50%), Ram (46%) and Jeep (13%).

Watch: Ad Age editors analyze Super Bowl ad winners and losers

Tubis’s disruption

While not technically a Super Bowl ad, Fox’s promos for its Tubi streaming service gained attention by faking viewers into thinking they mistakenly used the remote to turn on Tubi. Sprout Social reports that according to its data, Tubi drove more than 2 times the mention of any other brand on Twitter. As Ad Age reported earlier today, viewers “generally praised the brand on social media—even those who felt punked by it were laughing, for the most part.” Mischief handled the campaign, which won the Super Clio Award, which goes to “the most creative commercial to air during the Super Bowl.”

The #FentyBowl

One of the biggest winners of the night did not buy an ad. Rihanna’s Fenty scored major exposure when the singer flashed a Fenty compact during her halftime performance. The brand—which encompasses the beauty line Fenty Beauty and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty—built more social buzz for the brands than any in-game advertiser, Ad Age reports. 

MVP

Adidas did not run an ad in the game, but the brand benefited by having the Super Bowl’s biggest star—Patrick Mahomes. He won the MVP award as his Kansas City Chiefs topped the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35. But before the game even started, the sports brand shared on its social channels a tribute spot, which, as reported by Ad Age’s Creativity, mixes original and stock footage, and includes a moment with Mahomes and his daughter, filmed at home by his wife.

Speaking of his wife, Brittany Matthews, she has given some love to Lululemon. “I bought Patrick lucky game day underwear — red underwear from Lululemon — and he’s worn them every game day,” she said in a 2018 podcast interview that was resurfaced Sunday by the New York Post.