Cooper Kupp’s second touchdown, scored with less than 90 seconds left on the clock to give the Los Angeles Rams a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, made Super Bowl LVI one of the most exciting football showdowns in recent memory.
But which of the big budget ads shown during breaks sent the public into a buying frenzy, and whose creative agencies were told to hit the showers? Consumer search data firm EDO scored all of the national Super Bowl ads to see which drove the strongest customer engagement by measuring increases in online searches for the advertised brand or product in the minutes following the ad airing, and ranking each against the median performing ad.
Top 5 Electric Car Ads
EDO notes that the number of TV ads for electric cars has quadrupled in recent years, jumping from 8,100 in 2019 to 33,000 in 2021, and that trend has been reflected in the kind of car ads shown during the Super Bowl. Almost every single automaker with an ad spot was promoting an EV, either as the main hero car, or in the case of the Ariya, as a cameo in the Nissan Z film.
Polestar took top spot with a comedy-free, celebrity-free ad that took a little pop at Tesla (“no conquering Mars”) and VW (“no dieselgate”) while ostensibly promoting the 2 sedan. Here’s how the list shakes out:
1. Polestar – Polestar 2 2. Kia – EV6 3. Chevrolet – Silverado EV 4. BMW – iX
5. General Motors
Top 10 Car Brands
Polestar also dominated the overall car tables for both electric and combustion engined vehicles, while Kia’s cloyingly saccharine EV6 ad co-starring a robot dog came in second. Third place overall, and the best performing ad starring a combustion engined car, was Nissan’s Z promo featuring Eugen Levy.
1. Polestar – Polestar 2 2. Kia – EV6 3. Nissan – Z (starring Eugene Levy) 4. Toyota – Tundra (starring Tommy Lee Jones, Rashida Jones) 5. Chevrolet – Silverado EV (Sopranos intro remake) 6. BMW – iX (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Salma Hayek) 7. General Motors (starring Mike Myers as Dr Evil) 8. Hyundai – Ioniq 5 (starring Jason Bateman)
9. Toyota (featuring Paralympian brothers)
Top Ads Overall
Surprised that Polestar’s plain-speaking ad beat more creative rivals to top both the EV and overall car charts? Then you’ll be knocked sideways when you hear that it was the best performing ad at the Super Bowl, period. Propping up the list of 10 is Chevy’s riff on the Soprano’s TV series intro featuring an all-electric Silverado and its fancy rear-wheel steering (seen here).
1. Polestar – No Compromises 2. Cue Health – Meet Cue 3. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon) 4. Kia – Robo Dog (EV6) 5. Nissan – Thrill Ride (Nissan Z) 6. Coinbase – QR in Technicolor 7. Toyota – The Joneses (Tundra) 8. Disney+ – Moon Knight 9. Netflix – The Adam Project
10. Chevrolet – All-Electric Silverado
Top Celebrity Appearances
Celebrities always play a big part in advertizers’ attempts to draw us to their products, and Super Bowl 56 was no different. Whereas the overall list compares ads against the median performing Super Bowl ad, the celebrity list is achieved by comparing each against the median performing celebrity ad, which EDO says is why some celebs in ads from the previous list don’t make it into this one. Top spot went to T-Mobile and Dolly Parton, who’s immobile upper lip seems to suggest she’s had more work done on her than a barn find making its post-resto Pebble Beach debut.
1. Dolly Parton – T-Mobile 2. Morgan Freeman – Turkish Airlines 3. Jim Carrey – Verizon 4. Scarlett Johansson – Amazon Alexa 5. Colin Jost – Amazon Alexa 6. Lindsay Lohan – Planet Fitness 7. Seth Rogan – Lay’s 8. Peyton Manning – Caesars Sportsbook 9. Idris Elba – booking.com
10. Willie Nelson – Skechers
Keyword: These Were The Best Performing 2022 Super Bowl Ads – A Car Brand Took First Place