The Seahawks and Patriots weren’t the only ones doing battle on Super Bowl Sunday. Advertisers across multiple categories also went to war.
TV measurement firm EDO documented the most effective ads of this year’s Big Game, ranking each spot based on consumer engagement data, such as search, that predict future sales.
Each ad was scored against a median of 100; so if an ad tallied a score of 260, that means it generated more than 2.5X the consumer engagement of a standard Super Bowl ad.
The Seahawks ultimately won out in the NFL. Here are the winners across ad each category.
AI Services: AI.com
The mysterious spot encouraging viewers to claim their handle on ai.com was instantly intriguing to Super Bowl viewers, who flooded the site en masse causing its near-immediate crash.
AI.com was recently acquired for $70 million — the highest price tag of any domain in history — by the founder of crypto exchange Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek. It purports to help consumers use AI agents for various activities in their lives.
The ad drove nearly double the engagement of the next-closest AI advertiser, Anthropic.
Alcohol: Budweiser
Budweiser’s iconic imagery made a return in a 60-second spot titled “American Icons.”
The Americana overload scored big with viewers, raking in a score of 406 compared to the median Super Bowl EDO score of 100. The next closest alcohol appearance was aired by Michelob Ultra, whose Winter Olympics-inspired spot starring actor Kurt Russell tallied a score of 116.
There were fewer beer advertisers this year, but Budweiser generated 65% of category engagement, noted Laura Grover, senior vice president, head of client solutions at EDO.Budweiser’s ad also topped the USA Today Ad Meter for the second year in a row.
Automotive: Cadillac
Luxury automaker Cadillac seized the moment at Super Bowl 60 to promote Cadillac F1 in a cinematic 30-second ad set to a backdrop of JFK’s iconic moon exploration speech.
The spot beat out carmakers Toyota and Volkswagen in EDO’s rankings, generating 52% of total automotive Super Bowl ad-driven engagement.
