Between the 108.7 million viewers and the $4 million price tag on a 30-second advertising spot, Super Bowl XLVII created the type of opportunity of which marketing miracles are made. According to Nielsen, this year’s event didn’t disappoint viewers, as several advertisers came up with innovative approaches to land on this year’s top 10 best-liked and most-remembered Super Bowl ads lists. 

Doritos was this year’s creative MVP for the second year running, as the hilarious Goat 4 Sale ad earned both the most-liked and most memorable commercial mantles of Super Bowl XLVII. Doritos hasn’t strayed from the winning play it’s employed in the past, crowdsourcing its creative concept for the sixth year in a row. Doritos’ Goat 4 Sale wasn’t the only commercial that captured both the hearts and minds of viewers; in fact, eight of the top 10 most memorable ads also placed among the top 10 most liked. Some of these other memorable favorites came from Taco Bell, Tide, Dodge (Ram), the NFL and America’s Milk Processors.

Taco Bell’s Goodnight Mr. Goldblatt spot was also a hit with viewers, as it earned the distinguished honors of being the second most-memorable and third most-liked commercial. It was also the most tweeted about ad of this year’s big game, earning 215,000 tweets during the four-hour sports spectacle, according to SocialGuide.

GoDaddy, a three-year veteran of the most-remembered ads list, created some major buzz with its memorable yet polarizing make out scene. But if the Web hosting company’s creative drives a large increase in traffic to its Web site, as it has in years past, any mixed reviews the ad received may be a worthwhile sacrifice.

This year’s most-liked ads used different strategies to resonate with audiences. Good-natured humor and sentimental themes are staple strategies in every marketer’s playbook for effectively resonating with audiences. Doritos’ Goat 4 Sale and Princess Fashion Show ads illustrated how slapstick humor can be likeable and memorable without being in-your-face. Tide’s Miracle Stain spot took a silly, but family-friendly approach by featuring a man getting a Joe Montana-shaped stain on his jersey, only to have his wife (a Baltimore Ravens fan) wash it out.

Budweiser, Dodge (Ram) and the NFL took sentimental approaches to connect with viewers: Budweiser’s Clydesdale & Trainer spot won over audiences with the endearing story of a trainer and the Clydesdale foal he raised to be a Budweiser Clydesdale being reunited after a few years apart; the Ram ad with the Paul Harvey voice over took a similar approach, tugging at viewer’s heartstrings by praising the power and spirit of American farmers; and the NFL thanked fans by sending their favorite NFL players to their houses to surprise them.

Methodology

Recall: All Super Bowl ads were ranked on general recall. The General Recall Index was calculated by taking the general recall score (percent of viewers who remember seeing the ad) and indexing versus the mean general recall score of all 2013 Super Bowl ads. For example, with a general recall index of 137, the Doritos Goat 4 Sale ad has proven to be 1.38 times as memorable as the average 2013 Super Bowl ad.

Likability: All Super Bowl ads were ranked on likability. The Likability Index was calculated by taking the likability score (percent of viewers who liked the ad) and indexing versus the mean likability score of all 2013 Super Bowl ads. For example, with a Likability Index of 221, the Doritos ad has proven to be 2.21 times as likable as the average 2013 Super Bowl ad.

Notes: The Top 10 lists are based on about 6,750 ad surveys of Super Bowl viewers; 67 unique national creative executions (excluding movie spots) during the game's four quarters and halftime were considered for the list.