Appetite for Engagement: Restaurant Brands Soar During 2023 NFL Telecasts

Engagement was on the menu for Restaurant brands running ads on National Football League telecasts during the 2023 season, with spots in that category outperforming the NFL average by 72% during regular-season tilts and by an even more impressive 184% during the league’s postseason. 

Restaurant brands spent $416 million on 1,583 airings during the regular season, resulting in roughly 27 billion impressions, and they backed that up with $73 million more for 162 postseason spots, tallying some 6 billion impressions. 

Rookies of the Year 

The first four on EDO’s list of the top 10 restaurant brands by ad engagement during last year’s NFL season were not on our top 10 during the 2022 campaign: Dunkin’, Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse and Olive Garden. 

They were followed by: Applebee’s (No. 5, down one spot year-over-year), Chick-fil-A (No. 6, up 13 spots), Popeye’s (No. 7, down five spots), Burger King (No. 8, up four spots), IHOP (No. 9, up one spot) and Little Caesars (No. 10, up five spots).

Quarterbacks Drive Subway 

A pair of NFL quarterbacks starred in the spot that EDO found to be the most effective creative in terms of engagement compared with the category average during NFL regular-season and postseason telecasts. 

The top five were: 

1. Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and his Los Angeles Chargers counterpart, Justin Herbert, discussed which Subway sandwiches they “pro-ferred” (10 airings, 253% more effective than the category average). 
2. Sing along with the Burger King Melts song (six airings, 185% more effective). 
3. Popeye’s offered a grandmother’s take on its Sweet ‘N Spicy Wings while plugging its Cajun-Style Turkey (16 airings, 161% more effective). 
4. Chili’s backed its 3 for Me deal (22 airings, 131% more effective). 
5. The Dollarita is back at Applebee’s (24 airings, 115% more effective). 

On a side note, Dunkin’s star-studded Super Bowl ad—featuring Ben Affleck, Tom Brady, Matt Damon, Jack Harlow and Jennifer Lopez—delivered 513% more engagement than the median Super Bowl ad, according to EDO. 

Get ready for the 2024-25 NFL season today

CPG represents just one of several categories analyzed by EDO in The EDO NFL TV Outcomes Report: 2023-24 Season, available for download here. 

The report breaks out eight other categories, as well as diving deeper into Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, holiday games, Super Bowl ads and, of course, the Taylor Swift effect.