Successful Ads During the 2022 Super Bowl

Every year one of the biggest sporting events of the season, the Super Bowl, teaches people a lot about competition, but that doesn’t mean this lesson is only taught on the football field. Some of the biggest competitive face-offs during the game actually end up happening during commercial breaks. Although the football teams might be competing for trophies, a number of companies spend millions of dollars and compete for attention, leads, sales, and revenue during the game. Despite the crowded ad space during the Super Bowl, most viewers tend to recall only a handful of commercials from it. There are plenty of things that companies can learn from the best Super Bowl ads, even if they don’t have the big budgets that those companies are spending for their ad spots.

Toyota

Toyota’s big Super Bowl ad this year was titled “The Joneses”. Since everyone wants to keep up with the Joneses, in other words, the coolest family in the neighborhood with the best things, the campaign was memorable for plenty of consumers. The car brand tried to play up people’s relatable need to keep up with those around them, or with those they idolize, by showing some of the most famous people that others idolize. Those people included Leslie Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, and Rashida Jones, while they were racing in Toyota Tundras. The company decided to take the term keeping up with the Joneses in a literal way, by showing all of these different Joneses racing each other. When the race is over, the three celebrities are surprised by the popular musician Nick Jonas, who appears at the end of the commercial.

Verizon

During the 2022 Super Bowl, Verizon decided to bring nostalgia to the audience, with the help of the popular 1996 movie, The Cable Guy, featuring Jim Carrey. The brand decided to create a mini reboot of the film, where Carrey goes into an apartment to set up someone’s Internet cable, but instead, he finds out that the customer is using Verizon 5G.

Although some consumers may not have watched this old film, plenty of people understand the ordeal that consumers face when they’re trying to switch providers. At the end of the day, Verizon’s nostalgic and attention-grabbing commercial managed to help most people relate the commercial to their own experiences.

Budweiser

For this year’s Super Bowl, the popular alcoholic beverage brand Budweiser decided to take a different route compared to other food and drink companies. The commercial that Budweiser created portrayed a horse that hurts its leg in a jumping accident, as well as his dog friend who worries about the horse. The brand decided to share a story of optimism and hope by portraying the horse’s leg healing by the end of the commercial, which the brand tries to relate to the ongoing pandemic situation around the world. While the brand could have highlighted its products with the campaign, it instead told a relatable and empowering story about the brand’s mascot, which made for an interesting break from all the other ads throughout the day.