Super Bowl ads are usually reserved for elite brands. Or I should say, brands who have a $7 million budget for a 30 second commercial.

Each year the Super Bowl shows competition. Competition on the field and competition between brands for the best ads.

Since the best and most successful brands are putting a ton of effort into these commercials, marketers can extract trends and best practices to shape their strategies.

Partnership Marketing Pushes Creative Boundaries

Rocket Mortgage and Barbie were an unsuspecting yet brilliantly creative commercial to market to parents and home buyers.

Perhaps marketers can start thinking outside the box and come up with some partnerships that stand out. Partnership marketing is great for entertaining content and it also helps with the budget because you have another brand splitting costs with you.

Are Goats the New Puppies?

Puppies and kittens have been in Super Bowl commercials for a long time. This year we saw goats! Which makes us think goats are the new puppies.

This trend isn’t surprising since Americans are over the pandemic and are drawn to light and happy things. Can you include cute goats in your marketing materials?

TikTok Integrates into TV ads

Uber Eats used the infamous “oh no” TikTok audio in their ads to capture the attention of younger buyers. Expect to see more social media-focused marketing and trends in traditional creative as we step forward.

Expect More QR Codes in Ads

This old marketing tactic is on a resurgence path due to the pandemic demands. Though dated, it’s effectiveness is stronger than ever.

It’s a way to add a longer shelf life to ads if a QR code takes them to a landing page.

Messages Tied to Unity

Similar to last year, we saw marketing messages tied to unity as a nation and a world. Using marketing as an advocacy channel to unite target audiences will continue to be a strong tactic in today’s world.

A Rise in New Brands

About 40% of the brands who did a Super Bowl commercial this year were new brands and had never advertised at the Super Bowl before. 

Many of the new brands were cryptocurrency brands.

It was refreshing to see old and new brands which gave viewers a variety of commercials to be entertained with.

Key takeaway from this, sometimes new brands need to get outside their comfort zones and pay big money to “play.”

Electric Car Ads Bring in Traffic

After 6 of the 7 car commercials were for electric cars, and immediately after airing cars.com saw an 80% increase in page views of electric cars.

Does a product at your brand have the potential to earn a huge increase in page views?

Pandemic Fatigue

None of the ads touted actors with masks on. Taking it a step further, Covid wasn’t even mentioned in any of the commercials.

Apparently target consumers are sick of Covid and don’t want to watch it on tv!

Ads With a Purpose

There were a handful of commercials that had a purpose past just selling products or services. One such theme with a purpose we saw a few times was the encouragement of sustainability. 

Consumers like to support brands that have a greater cause which can easily be worked into any digital campaign.

What Super Bowl ad trends did you notice? We’d love to read all about it in the comments below!