The ads that won the night: Super Bowl LX ad performance

Super Bowl LX has come and gone. The Patriots lost (unfortunately), Bad Bunny put on an incredible show and we all ate more than we should have in front of the TV. 

But what about the part we care most about, the advertising? There were a ton of ads with celebrities, a lot of talk about AI and even a few stunt ads — all things we predicted before the big game (although we didn’t expect Coinbase to be back with another stunt this year!). 

A lot of the opinions we’ve heard from people this Super Bowl season was that the ads overall were a bit disappointing — that there weren’t a lot of surprises. But were the ads less effective? The data says no. We saw remarkable consistency in sales and brand impact from last year to this year. Brand Impact — the ability to drive brand equity over the longer term — remained at 56 from this year to last year. Sales Impact — the ability to drive short-term sales — dropped by one point from 61 to 60. But both years outperformed the US average of 50 across both metrics. 

As an audience we’ve grown to expect so much spectacle from Super Bowl advertising that just about anything can feel like a letdown nowadays. But the reality is that $8 million is not something businesses can play around with. Super Bowl advertisers are not just here to entertain — they have to justify that their investment will result in business impact. And the Super Bowl is a huge opportunity to get in front of a large audience. It just takes the right creative with the right goals to make it worth it. 

You can read our full report for the ads that did the Super Bowl right this year. Here, we’ll explore how the Super Bowl ads performed as a whole and which won in certain categories.

As the sales and brand impact numbers above imply, we saw an incredible amount of year-over-year consistency across a number of key areas for Super Bowl ads this year, with a few notable differences. Let’s get into it!

Distinctiveness 🟢

If there’s one thing we know about Super Bowl ads, it’s that they stand out as unique and different. This year’s ads did not disappoint in that area. They were significantly more distinctive than the average ad (Distinctiveness: 4.0 in 2026 vs. 3.7 norm), and exactly as distinctive as a whole as last year’s Super Bowl ads.  

And remember that this is the average of all the national Super Bowl ads. Many individual ads performed even better in distinctiveness than this. We’ll share the best ones below!

Purchase uplift 🟢

Purchase uplift also outperformed the US average (Purchase Uplift: 24% in 2026 vs. 22% norm) — which is consistent with last year’s results. This means the advertised brands are more likely to be considered after viewing the Super Bowl ads.

Super Bowl ads are a huge investment, and while not all of them are looking to drive immediate sales, it is a goal of many Super Bowl advertisers! So it’s great to see that purchase uplift remained higher than average this year. 

Emotion 🟢

Overall emotion rose by one point this year (Overall Emotion: 58 in 2026 vs. 57 in 2025) — let’s take a closer look at what’s driving that.

While this year’s Super Bowl ads brought more laughter than the average US ad as expected (Laughter: 12% in 2026 vs. 7% norm), there was a four-point drop from last year! Which means that, as a whole, this group of Super Bowl ads was less funny than last year. 

However, this year’s Super Bowl ads were more loved than last year’s, by four points!

While humor has long been a staple of Super Bowl advertising, this year’s Super Bowl advertisers leaned more in the heartwarming direction than they did last year, and they outperformed the US average in love (Love: 31% in 2026 vs. 27 norm). 

We certainly saw a lot of heartwarming ads this year, like both ads from the NFL (“Champion” and “You Are Special”), Toyota’s “Superhero Belt,” Lay’s “ Last Harvest,” Ring’s “Be a Hero in Your Neighborhood” and many more!

We also saw more confusion than the average US ad (Confusion: 4% in 2026 vs. 2% norm) — though on par with last year — and more dislike than the average ad (Dislike: 3% in 2026 vs. 2% norm), which is a slight drop from last year. This is expected. Super Bowl ads often take big swings which help them stand out from everyday ads. But those ads can be a bit polarizing, resulting in more confusion and dislike.

Brand recall 🔴

While last year’s Super Bowl ads were on par with the average US ad in brand recall (70%), this year’s ads saw a significant drop (66%). While of course we saw a number of ads with much higher brand recall (we’ll share the top ones in the next section), as a group they underperformed the average. 

This means that for many of the ads, the brand was not always easily identified, which is not the best use of a brand’s Super Bowl investment. 

If you’re advertising in the Super Bowl next year, it’s worth spending the time to make sure your brand is identifiable in your ad. You want the associations and feelings from the ad to reinforce the strength of your brand and product in consumers’ minds. That way, your brand comes to mind in key moments when they are considering purchasing products like yours. 

That means highlighting your distinctive brand assets (characters, mascots, colors, etc.) and giving your brand a clear role in the story. 

So which ads won the night? We’ve got all the details in our Super Bowl report, but we broke it down into categories here. 

Most distinctive

There are many methods brands can use to try to stand out from the crowd, especially at the Super Bowl. That’s why we’re not surprised to see a five-way tie for the accolade this year! 

Each of these brands had higher than average distinctiveness scores (4.3 distinctiveness vs. 3.7 norm), which is based on how different consumers find it to be compared to other ads they’ve seen:

• Budweiser “American Icons”  

• Pringles “Pringleleo”

• Oakley Meta “Athletic Intelligence is Here” 

• NFL “You Are Special”

• Liquid I.V. “Take A Look”

Budweiser’s use of their distinctive brand assets (DBAs) with their Clydesdale colt and wonderful storytelling made them instantly recognizable, Pringles clever use of their chips made for a very unique spot that could only make sense for their brand and Oakley Meta delivered information about their product in an eye-catching, high-intensity way. 

The NFL returned with a heartwarming spot people loved, again featuring several NFL players and highlighting one of their causes. And how could Liquid I.V.’s singing toilets not make anyone look twice?  

Best branded 

We saw a three-way tie for best branded ad this year! Each of these spots received the same higher-than-average brand recall score (81% vs 70% norm), which refers to how likely someone is able to remember who the ad was for: 

Bud Light “Keg”

Bud Light’s ad not only featured the same celebrity trio as last year (Post Malone, Shane Gillis and Peyton Manning), they also made sure there was a clear role for their brand in this year’s spot. With the whole wedding centered around retrieving the precious Bud Light keg from rolling down a cliff, it could only be an ad for Bud Light.   

Ritz “Ritz Island”

This year’s ad from Ritz had a clear call back to their spot from last year: Being salty. That connection of the act of “being salty” to their crackers own “saltiness” the brand has established made it easy for viewers to know exactly who the ad was for, even with new celebrities and a new exclusive Ritz location.

T-Mobile “Tell Me Why”

T-Mobile’s spot was chock full of DBAs, from their trademark pink brand colors to having the ad take place in their actual store. While these subtle cues helped people recognize the brand, T-Mobile was also consistent in their use of music in their Super Bowl ads. With a nod to their previous Super Bowl spot with John Travolta singing the Grease hit “Tell Me More,”  this clever use of the BackStreet Boys’ “Tell Me Why” was another great way to cue the brand.     

Most loved

The NFL took home the award for most loved ad for their “You Are Special” spot.

With nearly double the average love score from viewers (59% Love vs 27% norm), it was clear people had a lot of love for this ad! Starting right at the opening of the ad where an NFL player is seen kicking off Mr. Roger’s “You Are Special” song on the piano, love reactions are abound and continue to grow when the kids appear and join in on the singing. 

Overall, people absolutely loved the combination of the NFL players singing with the kids and their overarching message to shine a light on their Inspire Change program.

Most laughs

Many viewers expect to get a lot of laughs out of Super Bowl ads, but which one tickled viewers the most this year? 

In their ridiculously chaotic spot featuring actor Ben Stiller and music artist Benson Boone, Instacart’s “Bananas” spot takes home the most laughs award by a landslide (33% Laughter vs 7% norm). 

In the ad, the pair are seen in matching jumpsuits singing about how Instacart lets you choose your own bananas, when it gets strangely competitive and Ben Stiller takes a hard dive from the top of the stage, landing in a big crash. The combination of their attire, the song and slapstick performance from Ben Stiller made it impossible for viewers not to laugh out loud!   

Best use of music

Great music was one of the big themes we saw this year among Super Bowl LX ads, from Michelob ULTRA’s montage with “Eye of the Tiger,” Levi’s “Get Up Offa That Thing” and more. But it’s Budweiser that took home the award for best use of music, with an incredibly high musical appeal score (4.5 vs. 3.8 norm) in "American Icons.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” is a legendary track in and of itself, and for a brand that is known for having its traditional All-American and vintage feel to its ads, it’s the perfect choice. And the people loved it!

In addition to being an excellent choice for the brand, it also helped set the scene for the wonderful storytelling in the ad — another aspect people love about Budweiser ads. 

Best new information 

Finally, it’s not an easy feat to share new product information in an ad in an engaging way, never mind in a Super Bowl ad. But Ring did an excellent job at achieving just that in their “Be a Hero in Your Neighborhood” ad (4.4 vs. 3.7 norm for New Information), taking home the award for best new information.

Instead of dry, tech heavy updates, Ring brought their benefits to life, conveying their new product information in an emotionally compelling way — with dogs! Sharing that their latest Search Party feature can help reunite lost dogs with families (and already has!) immediately touched the hearts of viewers and captured their attention, also resulting in lots of love from the audience (46% Love vs 27% norm).

A big round of applause goes out to not only our award-winners, but to all the brands who advertised at the Super Bowl this year! What did you think of this year’s ads? And which was your favorite? Let us know by interacting with our coverage on LinkedIn.

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