Saturday Night Live is in rare company as one of TV’s longest-running shows and a pillar of U.S. pop culture. And if history is any guide, brands can expect this cultural capital to translate to outsized ad effectiveness and impact when Season 52 of the late-night mainstay premieres on September 26, 2026.
Last season, the average SNL ad delivered as much impact as 8.1x ads that aired on primetime broadcast and cable TV. That season's premiere, hosted by Bad Bunny, with musical guest Doja Cat, had even stronger results, delivering 17.7x as much impact as the benchmark, while also driving 58% stronger engagement on a per-second, per-viewer basis.
This season, New York Knicks' star Jalen Brunson will host the premiere, fresh off his NBA Finals MVP run. When you consider that this year’s NBA Finals delivered a 97% annual increase in ad impact from last year’s event and that global pop group Katseye will be performing as the opener's musical guest, SNL looks poised to deliver powerful results for advertisers on opening night.
To get a sense of what might land well with audiences this year, EDO reviewed the top brands and creatives from last season. Aside from "more cowbell," here's some of the common factors behind SNL ad success.
Celebrities ruled the roost
Maybe SNL fans have a soft spot for stars, thanks to classic skits like Celebrity Jeopardy or the fact that a rotating list of celebs take center stage as the host and musical guest each week. Either way, the data shows that ads with celebrity endorsements were some of the top-performing creatives last season.
During the Season 51 premiere, the top four creatives with the strongest impact all featured celebrities. The two top spots went to T-Mobile; one of its creatives featured Billy Bob Thornton and another starred Zoe Saldaña, which resulted in 349% and 284% greater impact, respectively, compared to the average SNL Season 51 premiere ad.
Applebee's was another big premiere winner. Its creative featured high-profile NFL figures C.J. Stroud and Dan Campbell, generating 86% stronger impact than the Season 51 premiere average.
Beyond the premiere, celebrities also made a strong showing. The top creative throughout the season was a Spotify ad featuring Bad Bunny — who happened to be the inaugural Season 51 host — which was a whopping 8,544% more effective than the full season average.
This trend held across a wide range of brands' creatives, such as:
- Capital One, with a holiday-themed John Travolta spin on Greased Lightnin' (880% stronger engagement)
- Clinique, with a simple, product-focused ad featuring Emilia Clarke (320% stronger engagement)
- Eggland's Best, with a product endorsement from Olympian Katie Ledecky (236% stronger engagement)
These were just a few of the many SNL ads that featured a celebrity last season. To be fair, not all had above-average engagement, but the trend weighed positive, especially among the very top performers.
Pets and pharmaceuticals prompted engagement
SNL viewers also seemed receptive to pet- and pharmaceutical-themed commercials. Sometimes the two even intersected.
Purina claimed five of the top seven spots for most effective creatives across the full season. The pet food brand's ads ranged from silly to serious, but almost all had very high engagement.
Both prescription and OTC pharmaceutical brands also had some of the top-performing creatives. Some standouts included the following:
- Librela, a prescription injection for dogs with osteoarthritis, had a quick explanatory creative during SNL that delivered 528% stronger engagement than the average.
- Mucinex's lighthearted creative for its nighttime cold and flu medicine was 503% more effective than the benchmark.
- Freestyle Libre, a continuous glucose monitoring system, featured a tongue-in-cheek Western-style showdown with a cat, to the tune of 371% stronger engagement.
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SNL remains one of the marquee live entertainment events on a weekly basis, year in and year out, yet it still might be flying under the radar from an advertising standpoint. Whether you're airing creatives during Season 52 or looking for more potentially underutilized advertising opportunities like this, EDO can help.
By measuring the immediate, ad-driven engagement across every TV ad, EDO can provide you with the investment-grade TV outcomes data that helps you understand your ad performance, analyze competitors, and optimize media and creative decision-making.
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