Preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research indicate that roughly 125-130 million viewers tuned in for the big game, making this not only the premier sporting event of the year, but also the premier marketing event. As always, the Super Bowl commercials didn’t disappoint. They featured a heavy dose of celebrities, humor, wacky antics and poignant moments. But which of these commercials actually hit the mark from a marketing perspective?
The average 30-second Super Bowl commercial cost roughly $8 million this year, with some of the most coveted slots costing over $10 million. When you factor in the additional costs associated with production, celebrity cameos and other fees associated with these spots, the actual price of your commercial is much higher than the $8-10 million NBC charged companies to place an ad during the game. While the large audience exposure provides the potential for a significant boost to your business’ brand, the large price tag for the opportunity creates a high risk situation that requires you to get the messaging right.
What Makes a Super Bowl Commercial Effective?
From a marketing perspective, a Super Bowl ad must contain the following two critical elements to truly be effective:
- It must resonate with audiences on an emotional level
- It must authentically convey the company’s brand messaging
Resonating with Audiences
There needs to be something in the commercial that grabs the audience and makes them remember the ad. There are many different ways you can craft an ad that resonates with the audience on an emotional level. Some of the most common approaches used in Super Bowl commercials to achieve this goal include:
- Using over-the-top humor to create a memorable moment
- Leveraging celebrities to provide gravitas to their message
- Tapping into a universal theme or emotion that pulls on people’s heartstrings
The right approach will depend on the message you’re trying to convey in your commercial and the specifics of your brand image. But it’s essential that your ad resonate with the audience if it is going to have any real impact on your ability to grow your brand.
Conveying Your Brand Messaging
Super Bowl ads provide one of the greatest opportunities to grow your brand due to the size of the audience watching. As with other types of marketing campaigns, growing your brand can take on many different forms:
- For relatively unknown companies, the goal can simply be to gain awareness and have an opportunity for a large number of people to discover who you are and what you do
- For more established companies, the goal might simply be to remain relevant in the eyes of the general public
- For companies that are about to launch a new product or service, the goal might be to raise awareness of the new offering and make sure the general public connects it with your brand
Regardless of your specific goal, it’s critical to make sure the commercial aligns with your core brand messaging. A successful brand is a memory bank of positive associations between your company, what you stand for, and moments of happiness in people’s lives. Effective branding creates an immediately identifiable emotional connection that drives the experiences someone has with your company. For a Super Bowl commercial to deliver its desired impact, it must reinforce the experiences people associate with your brand.
Which 2026 Super Bowl Commercials Hit the Mark?
This year, we there were several companies that nailed their Super Bowl commercials. Keep in mind that the commercials discussed below are being highlighted because they hit the mark as an effective marketing tool, not because they simply made us laugh or had a great celebrity cameo.
Budweiser – “American Icons”
Budweiser’s “American Icons” commercial features a young Clydesdale befriending a small baby bird. It creates a montage of the Clydesdale and the bird growing up together and forging a bond. At the end of the ad, we see the full-grown Clydesdale jump over a log with large wings extending behind the horse. We quickly find out the wings belong to the bird, which has grown into a bald eagle. Farmers nearby watch the scene, and one of them is fighting back tears as he sees the eagle soar over the Clydesdale.
Why This Works: This commercial uses several techniques to tie this scene to Budweiser’s brand messaging:
- It features a Clydesdale, which has become synonymous with the Budweiser brand
- It includes a few deeply American elements in the montage sequence – a bald eagle, farmers and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” – to tie the commercial to Budweiser’s core messaging of being a distinctly American beer loved by Americans
This commercial helps establish the continued relevance of the Budweiser brand among beer drinkers while reinforcing the brand tropes that have made the company one of the most iconic beer manufactures for 150 years.
Turbo Tax – “The Expert”
This commercial uses humor to remind audiences that Turbo Tax takes the pain out of doing your taxes. It features Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody trying to nail a scene where he plays a tax expert, but he takes the role too seriously, turning a light-hearted moment into an overly dramatic scene that harps on the pain of doing taxes. When the director tells Brody he’s missing the mark and needs to tone it down, he responds by saying “I just want to tap into the pain of taxes.” He’s then reminded by a Turbo Tax employee that “We take the pain out of taxes.”
Why This Works: At its core level, this commercial epitomizes effective marketing. It highlights a pain point that everyone experiences (doing taxes can be a massive hassle that everyone hates doing). Then, it clearly conveys why the brand featured in the commercial (Turbo Tax) solves this pain point for people (“we take the pain out of taxes”). It also uses an iconic actor poking fun at himself to deliver this message in a way that truly resonates. As tax season approaches, this commercial strongly reinforces why Turbo Tax should be your go-to if you want to make the process as painless as possible.
Levi’s – “Backstory”
This commercial takes a simple approach that reinforces the company’s brand image in a powerful way. The entire ad consists of a montage of people’s backsides set to the music of James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing.” The montage includes quite a few famous people wearing Levi’s, including Grammy-winner Doechii, K-pop star Rose, George Michael (from the iconic “Faith” video), NBA star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Woody from Toy Story and Bruce Springsteen’s iconic photo from the Born in the USA album cover.
Why It Works: The commercial focuses on what Levi’s makes – denim jeans. It features famous people wearing their jeans and showing off their attractive backsides. This reinforces Levi’s brand messaging of providing a stylish product that makes your backside look good. By incorporating a diverse group of people in the ad, they make their brand feel inclusive – anyone can watch that spot and envision themselves looking good in a pair of Levi’s.
Ring – “Search Party”
This commercial raises awareness about Ring’s new Search Party AI feature, which helps people find their lost dog. The traditional way of searching for your lost dog (hanging posters on telephone polls around your neighborhood) is contrasted with the ways in which Ring’s AI technology leverages their outdoor cameras around your neighborhood to help you find your lost dog.
Why It Works: Very few Super Bowl commercials were as effective as the Ring ad at resonating on an emotional level. Who doesn’t relate to the heartbreak associated with losing your beloved pet? Everyone is grabbed right away. The ad also contrasts old-school approaches with new technology in a powerful way, and it states that Ring’s Search Party has helped families find more than one lost dog every day since the feature was released – proof of results. The message in this commercial is clearly stated: Ring connects communities in ways that make it easier to solve problems that are important to families (finding their lost pet).
Anthropic – “Can I Get a Six Pack Quickly?
There were a lot of AI commercials during the Super Bowl. Some were very effective, while others missed the mark. Anthropic’s ad was one of the better AI commercials of the night. It features a young man asking an AI chatbot (personified as a personal trainer) for help creating a workout that will give him a six pack. After laying out a few basic steps to help achieve the young man’s fitness goals, the AI chatbot pivots to a sales pitch for shoes, creating a puzzled expression on the young man’s face. The commercial ends with the statement that “Ads are coming to AI, but not to Claude.”
Why It Works: This commercial does an effective job at positioning Anthropic’s AI platform, Claude, as being different than its competitors. While we’re about to see many other AI platforms introduce ads that will reduce the relevance of their responses and erode the trust of users, Claude will remain ad free. This establishes Anthropic as a brand that people can trust to deliver the information they need, while raising questions about competitor brands who may be more focused on catering to the needs of the companies that purchase ads on their platform.
Which 2026 Super Bowl Commercials Missed the Mark?
We also see countless examples of commercials that fail to connect the message in the ad to the company’s brand in a meaningful way. While these commercials may generate some buzz at the water cooler the day after the game, they will typically be forgotten quickly without providing a tangible benefit to the company’s brand.
Coinbase – “Everybody”
The commercial mimics a screen you’d see while doing karaoke. The song being performed is the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody,” but some of the lines are modified so that they’re more relevant to a cryptocurrency exchange.
Why It Misses: The commercial fails to clearly connect with its subject matter or the company’s brand in a meaningful way. It doesn’t appear to have anything to do with cryptocurrency, it doesn’t convey any benefits of the Coinbase platform, and it doesn’t reinforce their brand messaging in any way.
Instacart – “Bananas”
This commercial was one of the more over-the-top ads of the night. It featured Ben Stiller and Pedro Pascal performing on a stage, but the performance goes off the rails as Ben Stiller does a backflip off a watermelon and crashes on top of the drum kit. Chaos continues as Stiller destroys the stage.
Why It Misses: How does this commercial relate to the services Instacart provides? How does it reinforce their brand? Do you even realize it’s an Instacart commercial until you see their logo at the end? This commercial features two famous celebrities and leveraged over-the-top physical humor to create one of the more memorable moments during the Super Bowl commercials, but its failure to connect these images to the Instacart brand in a meaningful way prevents the ad from having any real impact. You’re more likely to discuss “the commercial with Ben Stiller” than remember it was promoting Instacart.
Uber Eats – “Hungry for the Truth”
This commercial features Bradley Cooper and Matthew McConnaghy debating whether the NFL is really just trying to sell food. This commercial continues a campaign Cooper has done for Uber Eats over the past year.
Why It Misses: While this commercial is high on star power, it doesn’t really connect the message of the ad to the Uber Eats brand in a meaningful way. The rambling conversation about the ways in which the NFL is really just trying to sell food usurps the focus away from Uber Eats and the benefits their brand provides.
Webolutions Can Help Elevate Your Brand
These Super Bowl commercials provide an important lesson that applies to all marketing efforts. In order for your campaigns to be successful, they must consistently reinforce your brand messaging in a way that resonates with your target audience on an emotional level. When you work with Webolutions, you’ll benefit from a unique approach to digital marketing that places your brand messaging front and center at all times.
Our Intrinsic Multiplier™ Approach is focused on creating compelling messaging for your target audience that highlights your competitive differentiation based on your company’s unique core values, purpose, mission and specific business strengths. When we start working with you, we’ll collaborate with your leadership team to uncover the elements of your business that make you special and unique. This information will form the basis for a Brand Platform™ that outlines the messaging standards, brand attributes, brand voice, purpose and values, and brand story that will define your company. This branding will be used in all your marketing campaigns to provide a consistent message that communicates the unique transformations your customers will experience from working with you.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Webolutions serves clients nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.
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