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New York – February 16 – For all the glitz, glamour, and CGI, why did 72% of Super Bowl ads miss the mark in driving consumer action for their brands? And why did overall average creative effectiveness for all ads dip to the lowest point in a decade? And why did so many score below norms for their own brand advertising for the year?
“Sure, 65% of Super Bowl ads were likeable, but that’s only one of 14 KPIs ABX measures to establish creative effectiveness against norms from 425,000+ ads tested globally,” said JJ Klein, Chairman and CEO of ABX Advertising Benchmark Index™. ABX is a leading ad effectiveness and consumer insights company with the largest multi-media syndicated research system in the world.
2024 Super Bowl TV ads should have been exceptional, given the largest audience since 2013, the record-setting spot costs, and the lowest levels of distraction from competing devices since 2022 (See Appendix). In some cases, it was. But the average creative effectiveness score across all ads, as measured by the ABX Index™, hit only 97 against an average norm of 105. The ABX Index is a composite of the most critical KPIs for measuring ad effectiveness and has been proven to correlate with and increased revenue and profits.
What Happened? What Can We Learn?
Delivering successful results for any type of CTA requires strong scores in Brand Awareness (advertiser is correctly identified), Messaging (conveying a clear benefit) and Reputation (a net-promoter type score). Since 72% of Super Bowl ads scored below norm for “Any Action,” opportunities were missed for Messaging (49% below norm), Brand Awareness (36% below norm), and Reputation (50% below norm).
Top Five Ads by “Any Action”
Dorito’s drove the highest “Any Action” score through sheer creativity in casting, story line and humor with two “older ladies” conquering every obstacle to get the last bag of Doritos Dinamita. Bag-grabbers Jenny Ortega and Danny Ramirez further conveyed product desirability. But Action was driven by continuous product shots, oral brand repetition, and the names of the ladies, “Dina” and “Mita.” Reputation (120) and Brand Awareness (108) were good, but Messaging (96) didn’t quite convey brand benefits.
This lightning fast, high-energy, colorful, crazy-making, brilliantly-written spot also scored 118 in “Any Action.” The strongest drivers were non-stop product shots, oral mentions of the brand, and clear health and taste benefits. Strong Messaging (118) like “The future of soda is now and it’s called Poppi,” stimulated Action along with Reputation (125) and Female Presentation (106) as measured by the ABX Gender Equality Index (GEI)™.
The brilliance of this spot was its spoof on State Farm’s musical signature, “Like a Good Neighbor” with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inability to pronounce it without his Austrian accent as “Neighbah.” The constant repetition of State Farm’s signature line as argued by spot director Kevin Miles and spokesperson Arnold isn’t resolved until Danny DeVito saves the day. Product benefits included Arnold in various disasters covered by State Farm Insurance. Great humor, high-octane celebrities, and reinforcement of State Farm’s identity produced high Brand Awareness (110), Message (117), and Reputation (141).
Another great play on brand name featured Tony Romo insisting the correct spelling of “Skechers” is without a “T.” Mister T is incensed and insists there is a “T” in “Sketchers.” Constant brand name repetition and clear benefits show the ease of Skecher’s Hand’s Free Slip-ins as Mister T tests them in various crazy situations. The resulting Message score of 118 was the strongest driver of “Any Action,” while Brand Awareness and Reputation also played a part at 106. The Male GEI scored only 104, so didn’t contribute all that much to Reputation.
With six super celebrities Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Jack Harlow, Tom Brady, Matt Damon and Fat Joe, this Dunkin’ spot was impossible to ignore. Ben Affleck’s crazy introduction of his new band, “The Dunkings,” was funny, awkward, colorful, and ridiculous. Brand Reputation drove the Action at 120 while Brand Awareness (109) and Messaging (108) were a bit lower than expected. Female GEI for Jennifer was good at 115, but the Male GEI (109) didn’t quite live up to it. With such star power and humor, Dunkin’s marketing folks are likely surprised Any Action (114) wasn’t a bit higher.
Bottom Five Ads by “Any Action”
The spot starts with terrific visuals of people glued to their smart phones, unable to even notice the flying saucers above them until an alien sends a text. Funny! But it makes no sense since the Brand, Square Space, is a website builder, not a smart phone. And since the brand name only appears once at the very end. (Brand Awareness -83). The only clue we have that this is a website builder is Martin Scorsese’s critical and garbled comment at the end. (Message – 65). With a Reputation score of 46, the spot not only didn’t drive Any Action, but may have hurt the brand.
The Brand, “Jesus,” doesn’t show up until the last frame, in tiny text and with a play on his name, “Jesus.” (Brand Awareness (75). Stunning black and white images of dramatic people lead to the Messages (62), “Who is my Neighbor? The one you don’t notice, value, welcome” and “Love Your Neighbor.” Would Jesus have approved marketing his name in a $7 million spot at a mass marketing event like Super Bowl? Reputation (39) suggests the spot may have denigrated the holy name with vanilla messaging.
Once again, we see an ad with the Brand name, Homes.com, appearing only on the last frame (Brand Awareness 85). Dan Levy describes a new service that provides a “goldmine of local intelligence” while Heidi Gardener zones out during her makeover. The Message (67) that this service can quickly identify 11,000 more neighborhoods to find funky services wasn’t a clear benefit statement. Reputation suffered at 39. This ad could have been saved with multiple mentions of the Brand and clear, less frenetic, Messaging.
The Brand name, Fanduel, is mentioned briefly at the start, and in multiple visuals of the logo, which resulted in a Brand Awareness score of 91. Visuals included Rob Gronkowski missing the field goal kick at the Fanduel Kick-off of Destiny 2 with people betting on the game and celebrating in the streets. John Cena is happy with the results and fireworks are lit. Carl Weathers gives a nod to Gronkowski. The product benefit seems to be “Fanduel is fun,” but it’s not clear. (Message 72). Reputation is low at 62, and the Male GEI is only 102. Fewer visuals and a clear explanation of the Fanduel game would have improved the Any Action score (72).
DOORDASH logos and oral mentions are at the very beginning and end of the spot, and the word “Dash” is prefixed to every possible product it now delivers. (Brand Awareness 105). The frenetic product and service oral and visual lists are hard to catch as they appear on long ribbons that wind around visuals of the goods. The Message (93) seems to convey, “You can get anything now via DOORDASH.” But the benefit wasn’t strong enough to push a good Reputation score (71) or Any Action (75). Perhaps the spot needed a slightly slower pace to clearly communicate the benefits to the consumer.
Last Words
Driving Calls-to-Action is arguably the most important objective of advertising, whether it be to “Contact the Company,” “Visit the Website,” “Look for More Information,” “Purchase,” “Recommend,” or “Talk to Someone About it.” They all roll up to “Any Action” or “No Action.” We hope the ad analysis above is helpful in highlighting the elements that both help and hurt the objective to at least achieve “Any Action.”
About ABX:
Advertising Benchmark Index, (ABX), is a leading ad effectiveness and consumer insights company with the largest global syndicated measurement solution, which evaluates ad creative effectiveness across all media types, competitors, countries, social sensitivities, demographic groups and more. The unique ABX Measurement Methodology ensures every ad across 14 KPIs and multitudes of variables are measured in the same way for accurate forecasts and correlations to revenues.
Press Inquiries:
Angela Jeffrey
VP Brand Management
ABX Advertising Benchmark Index
angie@adbenchmark.com
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