Another NFL season is underway, and the Super Bowl is already on the horizon. For brands, that means another shot at the most expensive 30 seconds in advertising. With so much on the line, you simply can’t leave your Big Game performance to chance.
In our latest NFL TV Outcomes Report, we shared a little of what we learned from our analysis of every Super Bowl ad from 2021 to 2025. We measured each spot’s effectiveness at driving the consumer engagement behaviors that are proven to predict future sales, using AI to pinpoint the creative and media factors that made the greatest impact.
Here are a few of our findings — some of them may surprise you.
3 kinds of variables drive Super Bowl ad engagement
Not everything that determines how a Super Bowl ad performs is within a brand's control. In EDO's model, in-game excitement, score spread, and timing alone account for just over half of a Super Bowl ad's incremental engagement, factors entirely outside a brand's control.
The remaining lift splits fairly evenly between media choices, like ad duration and pod position, and creative choices, like talent and narrative structure. You can't stop a game from becoming a blowout, but duration, placement, and casting are levers you can pull to maximize performance.
Pod position — and length — has a major impact on ad performance
Where an ad runs during a commercial break makes a real difference.
Ads that run first in a pod deliver about 1.7x as much engagement as those that run later, while spots placed later in the pod see roughly 10% less engagement than the baseline Super Bowl ad.
Length matters too: spots that run 45 seconds or longer generate nearly 2.5x as much engagement as a standard 30-second ad. Securing an early pod slot — and a little extra airtime — can make all the difference.
Comedians deliver more than laughs
Celebrities are an annual fixture of the Super Bowl, and the approach tends to pay off — but performance fluctuates based on the kind of celebrity you use and how many you include in your ad.
Among celebrity appearances, comedians drive the highest engagement, at 1.8x — a significant premium over dramatic actors, who generate 1.3x.
Casting has a ceiling, too: ads built around a single lead outperform those featuring an ensemble of three or more, suggesting that spreading the spotlight across too many faces dilutes a star's pull rather than multiplying it.
Get the full picture with EDO’s NFL TV Outcomes Report
Outcomes measurement matters even more in the NFL, TV’s most premium ad environment
In our latest NFL TV Outcomes Report, we dive into the brands, ads, and sponsorship formats that made an impact throughout the 2025-26 season.
And if you want to learn more about what drives Super Bowl ad performance specifically, our Super Bowl AI Creative Analysis Whitepaper has the insights you need to win big on advertising’s biggest stage.