The Super Bowl is the biggest night of the year in TV advertising, and we’ve been busy ever since breaking down what really moved the needle for brands.
From CNBC to Adweek, we’ve been sharing our insights into the trends, brands, and celebrities that effectively generated the consumer engagements — like site visits and brand searches — that are most predictive of future sales.
We’ve got advertising’s big night covered from every angle. Here's our comprehensive analysis of the ads, trends, and celebrities who drove strong engagement during Super Bowl LIX.
T-Mobile & Starlink lead with practical innovation
The night's biggest advertising winner was T-Mobile's announcement of its partnership with Starlink, the satellite network maintained by the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. The ad, which generated an impressive 12.6 times more engagement than the median Super Bowl LIX ad, promoted free access to satellite-powered wireless service through July, and resonated strongly with viewers by offering clear practical value.
The spot ranked no. 1 in our annual ranking of the game’s most impactful ads. Check out our full list to see how brands like RAM, Liquid Death, and Hims & Hers made a big splash at the Big Game.
Breaking down the data on CNBC Squawk Box
Our President & CEO Kevin Krim joined the crew at CNBC's Squawk Box for his annual recap of the key advertising takeaways from this year's Super Bowl.
"What drives actual behaviors from consumers — things like people searching for the brand, going to the brand's website, using the brand's app — those are investment-grade signals of what's going to happen to the demand for those brands and products in the future,” he said, adding that engagement soared with health-curious ads, such as Hims & Hers’ ad spot touting its compounded versions of GLP-1 obesity medications.
Hard data tops conventional wisdom on the big stage
Super Bowl LIX was a perfect example of why we do what we do at EDO: when it comes to understanding TV ad impact, conventional wisdom is no match for cold, hard data.
In his latest Adweek article, our CEO Kevin highlighted data that demonstrates how most ads for generative AI fell flat, despite a great deal of pre-game hype from industry observers. The other big surprise? A trio of influencers for Poppi outperformed most of the Hollywood icons who appeared during Sunday night’s ad breaks.
The big night's celeb trends: over-50s, athletes abound, stars across brand ads
Many of the most engaging celebrities in Super Bowl ads were in the 50+ demo.
Harrison Ford, featured in Jeep’s “Freedom” ad, was the most engaging celebrity of the night — his appearance generated 13.2x as much engagement as the median-performing Super Bowl LIX celebrity who appeared in an ad.
Other prominent older actors included Willem Dafoe in Michelob Ultra's pickleball-themed "The Ultra Hustle" ad, former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick in Dunkin's "The Bean Method" ad, and Morgan Freeman in Homes.com's "Still Not Saying We're the Best" spot, directed by Taika Waititi.
The night featured 83 celebrity appearances from 68 unique celebrities across 12 categories. Some celebrities were featured in several brand ad spots, including Matthew McConaughey, who was booked and busy in multiple ads for Salesforce and Uber Eats. Martha Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu were also featured in multiple brand spots — Stewart for Uber Eats and Sketchers, and Ionescu, the WNBA star, in ads for Michelob Ultra and Nike.
For more insights — including on the many athletes who featured prominently in this year's Super Bowl ads — take a look at our celeb ranker.
Look beyond pure entertainment
This year's results demonstrate that while creative execution remains important, driving real consumer engagement requires more than just spectacle or star power. Brands that offered clear value propositions and authentic connections consistently outperformed those relying solely on conventional Super Bowl advertising wisdom.
For more insights on how EDO helps brands measure and optimize their TV advertising performance, visit edo.com.