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What makes a Super Bowl ad cut through the noise and rise above the rest? According to System1, early audience testing reveals that adverts from the NFL, Budweiser, Ring, Dove and Pepsi are ranking the highest, eliciting strong positive emotional responses from viewers.
These top performers have things in common, but what are those things? System1 defines them as the following top three, and below Pulse Advertising give their take on what makes a campaign that resonates.
01. Pop culture
Some brands like Budweiser are leaning into heritage and origin, while others have a lighter touch. Hellmann's uses a pun on a familiar icon with its Meal Diamond ad, featuring Andy Samberg as Neil Diamond.
Pepsi goes all out here, encroaching dangerously on Coca-Cola's territory with a polar bear doing a blind taste test, while maintaining brand recognition through distinctive brand assets.
02. Recognisable music
Hellmann's and Pepsi are using music playfully to land their brand message, according to System1, while Budweiser, Ring, Lay's and the NFL are harnessing it to create emotional dynamism. Either way, this year's ads are relying heavily on their soundtracks.
03. Exaggeration and parody
Poking fun at famous icons, cultural stereotypes and competitors seems to be winning this year. Exaggerated characters, scenarios and sets, like in this year's Bud Light and Hellmann's adverts, are delivering on the emotion, and therefore enhancing memorability.
04. Social-first campaigns
Paola Nannelli, CEO of Pulse Advertising, says the following:
"The Super Bowl is no longer just a broadcast moment, it's a social-first cultural platform. The smartest campaigns this year aren't just featuring influencers - they're leveraging their creative language. Teasers like Bad Bunny's show how brands and talent now use social to extend the event beyond the game, turning seconds of airtime into weeks of conversation and global relevance.
"The old playbook was: make a great ad, buy the slot, hope it goes viral. The new playbook is: build community first, co-create with them, then use the Super Bowl as the climax of a multi-week story. The brands that will win aren't those with the biggest production budgets – they're the ones who understand that in 2026, cultural credibility comes from community, not just celebrity."
And Maximillian Adagio, senior director of growth, Pulse Advertising NY, agrees. "Big brand TV budgets controlled by traditional marketers will use creators/partnerships as a tactic as opposed to a media channel, shoehorning as many celebrity and mega creator partners into ad spots and cameos as they can without applying social-first creative or media extension. This will reduce relevance, confuse messaging and leave audiences wondering, 'what should I think about that ad?' Or worse yet, 'who is that?' Many top tier talents will leave the weekend overexposed across numerous brands and messages.
"The winning brands will focus on discerning talent selection and accompany the highly celebrated, produced Superbowl content with robust social-first asset suites that connect talent to the ads and IRL presence at the big game natively and address-ably."
For more great adverts, see our best adverts of all time list.
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