Which brands won at Super Bowl LVIII? Mount Union professor ranks his top 5 commercials
One thing remains true: memorable brands that are advertised at the Super Bowl become a part of American pop culture.
Unlike the game itself where there is one pronounced winner, there is not a Lombardi Trophy for one winning brand. And if you have already seen many of the Top 10 lists of the best advertisements during the Super Bowl, you have already disagreed with their selections.
Your reaction will probably be the same for my list, however, it only includes two brands!
Spoiler alert: These brands did not pay the going rate of $7 million for a 30-second commercial spot but were still a large part of Sunday evening’s broadcast: Usher and Taylor. Now because one of these two have already enjoyed so much buzz on social media newsfeeds this past week, let’s just take a closer look at the halftime performance which drew a record-breaking 129.3 million viewers.
Performers during the Super Bowl halftime show are not paid to perform. Many past performers have actually spent their own money in addition to their $15 millon production budget.
Why? Because of brand exposure. Usher is well aware of the benefit of performing on America’s largest stage. Instead of paying for 30 seconds, a halftime performance gets you an uninterrupted 13 minutes.
Reports have indicated that Jennifer Lopez and Shakira gained 3 million Instagram followers after Super Bowl LIV in 2020, and Rihanna experienced the same last year in Super Bowl LVII. Rhianna also had 17 songs in the Top 40 on Spotify and became the No. 1 most-streamed artist globally.
Knowing this, Usher released his new album two days before the Super Bowl and has been adding dates to his upcoming tour all week. Although the NFL didn’t pay Usher to perform, sources have indicated that he has earned over $52 million in brand exposure, not to mention the endorsements during two other paid commercials advertisements.
Whether you enjoyed the performance or not, his brand definitely won.
Ranking the top five Super Bowl LVIII commercials
Finally, I won’t leave you hanging. Here are my top five commercials from Super Bowl LVIII:
Reese's Cups: Yes!
2. Dunkin': The DunKings
3. Dove: It's the Hard Knock Life
4. Skechers: Mr. T in Skechers
5. Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire
Temu came in at No. 5 because they were successfully able to educate all of us on how to say their brand name. The repetition in advertising didn’t hurt either because it had me singing the chorus when it aired for a third time.
Skechers earned a spot at No. 4 because they added humor, showcased their product well, and helped us remember how to spell their brand name correctly. Although Mr. T did not resonate with the Gen-Z crowd, I am hoping the Boomers enjoyed it as much as I did.
Dove came in at No. 3 because of “the feels.” As the father of a 12-year-old, thank you, Dove, for educating us and challenging us. If you missed it, go check it out.
Dunkin’ earned my second-place spot because of the jam-packed humor, recognizable celebrities, the continuation from last year’s commercial spot, in addition to successfully rolling out new products that were shown in the commercial. I hope you didn’t miss out on the free drink by entering “DunKings” as a coupon on their mobile app.
Finally, Reese’s took home gold in my book. They are my go-to chocolate of choice. A classic brand that keeps trying to reinvent themselves while not changing what we all know and love about them. Their classic peanut butter cups are like their commercial: simple and enjoyable.
Overall, Super Bowl LVIII averaged 123.7 million viewers, which came close to overtaking the largest watched television broadcast ever: the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Thank you, Swifties.
Joel Evans is assistant professor of marketing at the University of Mount Union in Alliance.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Mount Union professor Joel Evans rates Super Bowl LVIII commercials
