New study: Doritos delivered this year’s most memorable Super Bowl commercial

When the San Fransisco 49’ers and the Kansas City Chiefs met at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for Super Bowl LIV, it was not only the return of one of the world’s biggest sports events. It was also the return of one of the world’s biggest events in the media industry; the Super Bowl commercials. While people are looking forward to the final of the NFL season, they are also very much looking forward to the commercials being aired during the game, which have become a big part of the entire show.

When comparing people’s attitude towards Super Bowl commercials with regular TV and online video commercials, our study shows that way more people are enjoying these. In fact, it is the majority (58%) of all Americans who enjoy watching Super Bowl commercials, while this is only the case for 19% when it comes to TV commercials and 13% for online video commercials.

The Super Bowl commercials are more popular than the Super Bowl itself

People’s joy of watching the Super Bowl commercials is also reflected in the findings of how many that watched the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl commercials. In the US, more than two thirds (71%) watched the Super Bowl, while even more (73%) watched the Super Bowl commercials. And among these, 44% sought out the commercials on digital channels during or after the game.

Though the share of people who watched the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl commercials is lower in Germany, the trend is the same in this country. The share of people who watched the Super Bowl commercials is higher than the share of people who watched the actual Super Bowl. And like in the US, a large part of these also sought out the commercials on digital channels.

Doritos delivered the most memorable commercial

Among the Super Bowl commercials aired this year, it is the commercial from Doritos that people find most memorable. It means that Doritos has delivered the most memorable commercial two years in a row, as Doritos also topped the list of most memorable commercials from last year’s Super Bowl. Following Doritos’ commercial, people point out the commercials from Jeep, Hyundai, National Football League and Google to be among the most memorable this year.

Bloomberg beats Trump in the political ad battle

With 2020 being an election year in the US, this year’s Super Bowl commercials were not only characterised by regular brands such as Budweiser, Doritos and Pepsi but also got political with commercials from the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg. But who won the political advertising battle?

In terms of reach, our study shows that Trump won as 55% of the US respondents who watched the Super Bowl commercials watched his commercial, while 52% watched Bloomberg’s commercial. However, when looking at how the commercials changed people’s impression of the two presidential candidates, our study shows that Bloomberg’s commercial had a greater impact. Among the US respondents who watched Bloomberg’s commercial, 37% claim that the commercial positively changed the impression of him, while this is the case for 35% with Trump’s commercial. At the same time, 22% said that Trump’s commercial negatively changed their impression of him, while this happened for 18% of the ones who watched Bloomberg’s commercial.

Get further insights

In our study, you can learn more about the attitude towards Super Bowl commercials in the US, UK and Germany. Enjoy!

The study is based on approximately 4,000 individual survey respondents across the US, UK and Germany.

Download the full study and get further insights now: