In an analysis of Super Bowl ads, Nielsen IAG revealed which brands performed best overall and with male and female audiences. Below the surface of whether a particular ad was liked or disliked, several brands, such as Universal Orlando and FloTV, saw significant lift despite not cracking the top 10 when it came to most liked ad. Google, which produced a rare TV ad, saw its “Search On” spot become more effective on message communication than the average Super Bowl and had a higher likeability index among younger viewers.

Best-Liked Ads Often Split Along Gender Lines

Nearly a third of females reported to dislike the two GoDaddy spots, placing them among the game’s least popular commercials. Both Coca-Cola spots – “The Simpsons” and “Man Sleepwalks” – fell just out of the Top 10 most-liked ads for the overall Super Bowl audience, but ranked among the most popular ads among males. Even different ad executions from the same brand showed varied responses by gender. For example, Doritos aired four Super Bowl ads – two of which were equally liked among both men and women (“Man attacks guys at gym” and “Boy slaps date”), while another resonated particularly well with females (“Dog puts collar on man”) by 22 points and the other was better-received by men (“Casket full of snack chips”) by 13 points. Similarly, the E*Trade spot – “Baby talks with his girlfriend” – was 14 points better-liked among females, while the other E*Trade commercial – “Babies cry about broker” – was found to be equally appealing by both genders. The Focus on the Family spot featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, ranked as one of the game’s most polarizing. It resulted in a high percentage of viewers (driven primarily by females) who reported to “like it,” but it also generated a high proportion of audience who claimed to “dislike it.” And ad for the U.S. Census Bureau struggled to gain appeal from either sex (ranking in the Bottom 3 among both genders), however, older viewers reported a higher memorability of the ad than younger viewers.

The vast majority of Super Bowl ads were better-recalled among older viewers 35+ compared to younger viewers 13-34 (following a generally observed pattern regarding advertising attention), but four spots had at least 10 points higher Brand Recall among the younger set – including Motorola’s “Megan Fox sends picture” spot, Audi’s “Green Police” ad, Boost “Football Shuffle” ad, and the Monster “Beaver plays Violin” spot.