Super Bowl Ads: A Touchdown or a Fumble?

The secret to maximizing impact from the biggest ad stage of the year

*This article has been updated for Super Bowl 2025 with the latest industry trends and strategies to maximize sponsorship ROI. 

Today’s media, economic and social landscape remain in flux. While the economy showed signs of resilience in 2024, inflationary pressures and shifting consumer behaviors are raising concerns about sustainable growth. At the same time, media spend is at an all-time high, with global advertising on track to top $1.1 trillion in 2025 (up from $1 trillion in 2024). It’s a stark reminder that brands are facing record-high costs and increased pressure to prove ROI. And the Super Bowl – a pinnacle of both sports and advertising – serves as a timely reminder that every marketing dollar must work harder than ever.

Super Bowl ads aired to just over 123 million viewers (up from 110 million viewers in 2023).

The prevailing theory is that a Super Bowl advertising campaign can have an immediate demand impact in the weeks following the Super Bowl. But how effective is a Super Bowl campaign at driving business performance, particularly when the cost of a 30-second commercial spot averages upwards of $8 million dollars (up from an average of $7 million in 2024)?

With many considerations for marketers to weigh with their budgets: from media fragmentation, scarcity of customer attention, and balancing brand impact versus performance value, how do brands determine whether a Super Bowl ad is right for them?

Offsetting the high cost of a Super Bowl ad

The Super Bowl is among the most-watched live sporting events in the world, making it an enticing target for brand investment. And in an evolving video media landscape, it remains a huge source of TV spend. In 2024, gross advertising revenue from the Super Bowl broadcast was approximately $650 Million, per Sports Business Journal, not including the millions in production costs and pre- and post-game brand initiatives.

Many of the largest and most well-known Super Bowl advertisers would need to more than double demand to offset the cost of the spot.

Advertising budgets are often fixed, and spend on the Super Bowl commercial will be redirected from other higher-performing media. A popular beer brand with a $8 million dollar Super Bowl commercial would need to more than double demand in the weeks following the Super Bowl to justify reallocating that spend against better-performing media – a target that is not very realistic. And that means more than doubling demand for the total brand, not just the advertised product if the ad promotes a newer or smaller business unit.

Super Bowl ads, on average, deliver a short-term ROI that is at least 20-50 percent lower than a comparable alternative investment, per Analytic Partners ROI Genome. For a more established, high awareness consumer brand, the opportunity cost is even larger, and the Super Bowl ROI is, on average, 75 percent lower than other marketing activities.

Knowing the immediate return is low, should brands continue to invest in Super Bowl advertising?

It depends on your strategies and goals. Super Bowl ads drive an uptick in brand demand. Behind a significant ad spend and massive audience, this is relatively intuitive. The challenge is, given the high cost of the 30-second spots, the additional demand is not nearly enough to offset the high cost. When executing a Super Bowl campaign, brands must plan to offset the high cost, and lower ROI, with an exceptional surrounding media and communication strategy.

Activating and amplifying the short-term impact from the Super Bowl ad is critical to get the most impact from the campaign and justify the investment. An effectively executed Super Bowl ad, supported by a range of pre- and post-game activities, can drive a 4-5x larger impact, above and beyond the short-term.

ROI Genome’s 4 proven strategies to maximize your Super Bowl investment

Despite the high cost of a Super Bowl advertising campaign, brands will continue to invest. Advertising inventory was nearly sold out, with more than 10 of those commercials selling for $8 million a piece.

To make the most of the sponsorship investment, Analytic Partners recommends 4 proven strategies:

• Activate, Activate, Activate: Strong PR, social media, and POS strategies around Super Bowl ads are key to keeping the message top of mind with viewers long after the game is over. Amplify with a disruptive owned channel strategy, featuring the ad and its messaging across all platforms before, during and after the big game. 
• Develop Creative that Halos: 50% of ad performance on average is driven by halo effects across brands and business units. Some of the top performing creatives will be those which effectively drive impact beyond what is directly advertised. In 2023, Molson Coors’ first Super Bowl ad in more than 30 years ranked as the top beer commercial by Ad Age and AdWeek, and was among the most talked-about ads on social media (top-15 trending topic on X).
• Take Advantage of Synergies: Amplify with multiple paid, owned, and earned marketing vehicles to leverage scale. For example, according to ROI Genome, a four-channel marketing campaign drives, on average, 55% more demand than a single tactic execution. Airing the Super Bowl ad through higher ROI channels, like Social and Online Video partners, will boost overall campaign performance, as cost premiums will be less of a driver.
• Monitor Non-Working Costs. Utilizing the ad beyond the Super Bowl will stretch non-working/production costs and minimize the production-to-working cost ratio to maximize the overall financial return.

Despite the rising cost of Super Bowl commercials and the uncertainty of the economic landscape, well-known brands are doubling down on brand and performance marketing programs to invest in Super Bowl commercials. 

The tried-and-true live sports advertising model involves multiple online and offline programs that all works together synergistically. Executing an effective campaign involves alignment of KPIs reflective of the business impact and not just impressions. 

By taking a commercial view of your Super Bowl campaign and with a strong partnership between Marketing and Finance, you can align on the right metrics to understand the full impact to the business. For more information on how commercial analytics can maximize the impact of your sponsorship and advertising programs, get in touch with Analytic Partners today.