The Big Game Breakdown: Lessons from 2024 Super Bowl Ads

I watched more NFL this year than ever before because I’m in Michigan where our notoriously disappointing Detroit Lions finally made it to the NFC championship for the first time since 1991. What a wild ride! But if you’re usually a once-a-year football fan like me, you know you’re only here for the buffalo chicken dip and the ads on Super Bowl Sunday.

Ever since I was a teen with a budding interest in Marketing (along with the past eight years studying brand campaigns professionally), I’ve been analyzing brands on the biggest annual ad screen in the US - the Super Bowl. There’s been a frustrating decline in quality and class over the past decade, but many of this year’s ads were surprisingly smart, funny and compelling! A refreshing flashback to the good-old-days of E-Trade babies and Budweiser horses. There’s much to be learned from these big brands spending big bucks ($7M for a 30-second ad) to reach 123 million viewers. Here I outline my favorites through the lens of strategic brand analysis, and simple human perception (which is honestly the north star of good branding), and I’ll also share a few themes and lessons we can learn from these successful brands.

My Favorite Super Bowl LVIII Ads:

1. Toyota Tacoma:

I’ve been planning to write an article about how certain industries have an ad-type or messaging personality that is so overdone - like how 90% of all fast food packaging have the same kind of cheesy puns about food. Why are Chick-Fil-A, Wendy’s and BK all trying to flirt with me? No, I don’t want fries with that shake.

Truck ads are the worst offender. No matter the brand, you can expect the same exact style of messaging. A deep southern voice-over describes how capable, tough and powerful this masterpiece of machinery is, while mountain sunsets and dusty roads rumble into the distance.

Not this truck ad. Toyota took an entirely refreshing and fun angle to portray the same toughness, agility and ‘cool-factor’ every truck ads tries to portray - but this time it’s believable and relatable. I laughed out loud at the “seriously Rob?” handle feature because I too once uttered “seriously Matt?” while holding the passenger handle of my husband’s old Toyota (Land Cruiser) when we were off-roading.

Take-away: Find a fresh new way to communicate your core benefit that goes against the grain of your competition.

2. Microsoft Copilot:

Most of us are somewhere along the continuum of fumbling our way through learning how to use AI tools like ChatGPT. Culture is warming up to the accessibility and life-integration of AI tools, but they still feel like robots that are a bit intimidating, and we’re not quite sure how to apply them. Microsoft promoted their AI tool, Copilot, on the big game screen by showcasing relatable people (not celebrities like most of the other Super Bowl ads) as the hero in their own stories who leverage the vast capabilities of Copilot in relevant and transformative ways. Copilot is impressive, no doubt about it, but the brand was able to highlight it’s capabilities without making the tool the main character of the story. We can instinctively see ourselves in this ad because it was designed to make us imagine what we could achieve with a true ‘copilot’ like this.

Take-away: Drive brand awareness and clarity not by showcasing how impressive your product is, but by highlighting what it can empower your audience to achieve.

3. Squarespace:

The web design platform has been using the slogan “a website makes it real” for years. As an entrepreneur and a Squarespace designer myself, I can 100% attest to the accuracy and emotional resonance of this line. When I launched my brand strategy consulting business, it didn’t feel real, worthwhile or concrete until I built my website. And the same is true for my clients when I send that email with “Your Website is Ready for Review!” in the subject line.

What makes this ad a winner in my book is that the brand highlighted a new perspective using the same line they’ve built so much equity and meaning into over the years; instead of a great website making your brand real to you as an entrepreneur, they’re now highlighting how a killer site makes your brand ‘real’ and stand out to your audience. Squarespace is no longer targeting entrepreneurs launching their new business. They are now talking to successful brands wanting to reach new audiences with eye-catching websites.

Take-away: Leverage strong brand narrative assets for expanded applications and consumer benefits.

4. Poppi Soda:

This spot was a one-minute masterclass in how to reframe your brand as the solution to your category’s common problem. Against the backdrop of big soda brands like Coke and Pepsi, Poppi touts a charming brand story, founded by a couple from Texas determined to create a gut-healthy soda that combines fruit juice, apple cider vinegar, and inulin prebiotics. “This is the last moment you will ever think of soda… as being bad for you, full of unclean ingredients and unnecessary sugar,” the ad states. “[Poppi] will be the soda your kids and grandkids will think of when they think of soda…. Poppi is the next chapter in the story of soda.”

This retro, upbeat spot targets Gen Z and invites them to be the generation that redefines the entire soda category.

Take-away: Differentiate your brand by being the solution to your category’s problem.

5. He Gets Us:

I’m partial to this one because I love Jesus, but keeping my brand strategist hat on, I do think this campaign holds it’s weight. It accomplished exactly what it set out to do: get people thinking and talking about Jesus with more openness and curiosity. By transposing the actions of Jesus into the divisive society of modern America, the brand’s namesake message, “He Gets Us” invites viewers to consider the relatable and unifying application of his character. Although any Super Bowl ad that dares to breach the topic of religion will stir polarizing reactions, I applaud this brand’s strategic storytelling methods because they aim to circumvent traditional religious imagery and rhetoric that many individuals have disregarded. Instead, they bridge the gap to resonate with the diversity of modern society, fostering open conversations about Jesus by strategically translating his teachings into relatable and thought-provoking contexts.

Take-away: Reframe your message with fresh and relatable context.

Themes from Super Bowl LVIII Ads:

1. Consumerism:

From DoorDash to Temu, the American dream of filling your house with absolutely anything and everything was a disheartening theme for this year’s Super Bowl. Now you can “Shop like a billionaire” by buying cheap junk from sweatshops oversees, use it twice and toss it in a landfill. This was a surprising theme because it went directly against several growing consumer mindset trends - from modern minimalism, to environmental sustainability, and ethical supply chain consciousness. But I suppose there will always be consumers who want what they want, when they want it.

2. Celebrity Endorsements:

We see this every year, but it’s worth mentioning for a key lesson that us smaller brands can use in our advertising, even though we can’t afford to hire Beyoncé or Michael Cera. No matter the size of your brand, you need to balance your advertising budget between ad spend and quality production (including good talent). These big brands spend $7 million on a 30-second Super Bowl spot, so they want to make their investment count by also investing in talent that will make viewers pay attention and remember their ad. But even if you have a modest advertising budget, make sure you’re not over-investing in ad reach when you only have mediocre ad quality. What your brand says and how you say it are more important than how loudly you say it. So make sure you hire the right talent that will connect with and influence your target audience (and hire a brand strategist to make sure your message will resonate. ;)

3. Quick Clips

I lost track of how many Super Bowl spots this year featured dozens of quick clips, flashing back and forth across the storylines of different people and landscapes. This story-telling method creates a distinct tone and unifying idea, but rather than following a singular story, it portrays the message through the lens of diversity to draw in a wider audience and build greater relevance and authenticity. It’s a smart tactic for a giant ad stage like game day, where your audience is very diverse. It’s also a very efficient means of conveying your brand position, tone-of-voice, and unique selling proposition in just 30 short seconds.

Thanks for taking the time to read my musings on this year’s Super Bowl ad lessons. I hope you found the take-aways and themes helpful for your own brand’s promotions and messaging strategies. If you’re a brand owner or marketer looking for clarity on your brand strategy and message, I’d love to talk with you! Book a free consultation.