- Nike’s Super Bowl commercial has become one of the most talked about online.
- The ad featured women athletes, including Sha’Carri Richardson, Caitlin Clark, and A’ja Wilson.
- Ads from Dunkin’ and Jeep also performed well in the data.
Nike has emerged as a big winner in the Super Bowl advertising game.
The brand’s surprise Super Bowl return drove the most social media engagement among the advertisers in Sunday’s game, according to social and consumer intelligence company Meltwater. Nike generated 188,000 engagement actions, a key advertiser metric that includes social media likes or comments. That was 40,000 more than the next-most engaging advertiser, Jeep.
Nike also had the second-highest online reach among advertisers in this year’s game, behind Dunkin’, according to Meltwater.
Nike’s star-studded commercial, featuring women athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson, Caitlin Clark, and A’ja Wilson, marked the company’s first Super Bowl commercial in 27 years.
The company did not unveil its commercial ahead of time. The unexpected debut likely contributed to the online buzz, Anna Amarotti, a consumer insights and marketing intelligence lead for Meltwater, told Business Insider.
Ads from Dunkin’ and Jeep also made a splash
Dunkin’s “DunKings” ad also created a lot of buzz by reach, another key metric, according to Meltwater. The ad had the most impressions among this year’s Super Bowl advertisers, with 38.4 million, ahead of Nike’s 23.9 million impressions. Dunkin’s ad ranked fifth by social media engagement.
Dunkin’ leaned into its Boston roots for the Super Bowl commercial, featuring actors Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck and former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, among others. Amarotti said its reach was partly “the effect of a famous person on a brand,” describing how big celebrities can garner lots of attention on social media.
Meltwater also tracked public sentiment around this year’s Super Bowl ads. Jeep’s commercial with Harrison Ford was the most positively viewed ad. Pfizer’s commercial, which touted its cancer research, generated the most negative sentiment.
“The brands with the best performance wisely chose to recognize the societal moment in time, leaning into humor, comfort, and relatability, rather than aspiration and future-gazing,” said Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, Meltwater’s chief strategy officer, in an email to BI.
Other brand winners from the game include streamer Tubi, which had the most social media mentions in posts that referenced the Super Bowl, according to data from social media analytics company Sprout Social. Tubi, which is owned by Fox, streamed the Super Bowl for free.
Meanwhile, according to EDO, which measures the impact of TV ads, T-Mobile sparked the most consumer engagement online. EDO tracks behavior like whether someone searches for a brand. By this measure, T-Mobile’s ad had over 12 times the engagement of middle-performing ads in the game. Ads from Ram and Liquid Death also scored well.
