The Top 10 Most Effective Super Bowl Ads

The Chiefs may have won the 54th Super Bowl but it was Microsoft’s Be The One ad, starring the first woman Super Bowl coach, Katie Sowers, that scored a commercial touchdown, according to global effectiveness agency System1 Group.

For the second year running, the tech leader came out on top of the scoreboard, garnering the greatest emotional response from the American people and beating over 75 other commercials.

System1 Group’s unique and predictive behavioural methodology surveyed 11,250 people across the country in real time to determine how viewers responded to each commercial. Here’s the top 10 most emotionally effective Super Bowl 2020 ads from highest to lowest:

1. Microsoft (5.3 stars)

2. Jeep (5.2 stars)

3. Doritos (5.1 stars)

4. Cheetos (4.8 stars)

5. NFL (4.7 stars)

6. Minions (4.3 stats)

7. T-Mobile (4.3 stars)

8. Reese’s (4.2 stars)

9. Secret (4.1 stars)

10. Michelob (4.1 stars)

Utilising the company’s benchmark star rating system (1-5 Star scale), the ads were each awarded a score to demonstrate their potential impact on market share growth. System1 Group’s findings showed that Microsoft and Jeep led the charge with 5-stars rating. 

The Microsoft ad tells Sowers’ story in her own words, with plenty of archive footage, letting the fun side of her personality come across alongside her determination and professional pride. 

Coming in second place and beating other automotive brands, Hyundai and Porsche, Jeep scored with its Groundhog Day ad, starring everyone’s favourite, Bill Murray. Taking advantage of the Super Bowl coinciding with Groundhog Day, Jeep cleverly combined celebrity and nostalgia to win over Americans while promoting its 2020 Jeep Gladiator. 

Ranking third was Doritos’ Western-inspired ad. Merging celebrities with humour, the ad showed Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott having a cowboy dance-off. The on-screen chemistry and back and forth between the two characters is what made this ad a smash.

Jon Evans, CMO System1, commented: “Celebrities have always been a presence in Super Bowl ads but this year you couldn't move for them. For a lot of brands, quantity was more important than quality, with ad after ad cramming in a load of famous faces for cameos, vignettes and jokes. But the ads which succeeded in using celebs well, are the ones which focused on single celebrities and played on what they were famous for — like Bill Murray's performance in Groundhog Day, and Lil Nas X and MC Hammer's big hits. Lil Nas X is the first rapper in a 5-Star ad.”