The Super Bowl is one of the biggest sporting events of the year, which in turn makes it a super crowded space for advertising. It is a big moment for brands, and campaigns need to use best-in-class creatives in order to cut through and be effective. The key questions marketers typically ask are, how can a creative be memorable and drive impact during the incredibly busy Super Bowl ad space? We ran a Super Bowl creative and campaign meta-analysis with Kantar in order to answer this exact question.
We wanted to understand the role Snapchat plays in connecting advertisers to Snapchatters and other audiences during ‘the big game,’ as well as shed some light on creative best practices observed based on ads run on Snapchat during past Super Bowl games that brand marketers should take as they prepare for this year’s Super Bowl.
Super Bowl Beyond TV? Snapchat is Here!
First, we wanted to understand how well campaigns on Snapchat cut through and drive Ad Awareness. We did that by analyzing brand lift findings from 30 Super Bowl campaigns on Snapchat and compared them to Kantar MarketNorms, which for this analysis compares Snapchat data against Kantar Brand Lift Insights data that includes all campaigns run by Kantar. The analysis found that Super Bowl campaigns on Snapchat drive higher Ad Awareness Lift compared to norms, and results are even stronger amongst campaigns that include a Lens!
Better Outcomes? More Ad Products!
The analysis also found that exposure to multiple Snapchat Ad Products, like Snap ads, Commercials and Lenses, within a Super Bowl campaign is 2.2X more impactful at driving Ad Awareness and 2.9X more impactful at driving Intent than exposure to a single ad type.
But it’s not only during the Super Bowl. We always recommend a multiple-ad product strategy on Snapchat to get the most impact for brands, as products tend to work synergistically across the platform to drive full-funnel results.
Tips on How to Create the Perfect Super Bowl Ad
We also worked with our brand lift partner, Kantar, to create a normative database using their Link AI tool, where they uploaded ~10,000 Snapchat video ads into its artificial intelligence systems to predict ad performance on their platform in real time. Using this database, we analyzed Super Bowl video ads on Snapchat and uncovered drivers of strong performance.
Pair Text and Voiceover With Clear Benefits or Calls to Action
To drive Intent, Super Bowl ads should take advantage of both text and voiceover to communicate direct calls to action, highlight key benefits, and feature deals.
For food/beverage campaigns, it is important to have prominent shots of the product to entice viewers to consume.
For services campaigns such as sports betting, streaming, delivery, or utilities, a celebrity/human presence, engaging storyline, and humor are needed more than just product presence.