The television analytics firm EDO has unveiled its comprehensive assessment of national advertisements aired during Super Bowl LX, identifying artificial intelligence platforms, major film studios, and snack food manufacturers as the evening's most effective brand communicators. The annual evaluation, which has become an industry benchmark over the past ten years, measures advertising success through immediate consumer actions rather than subjective creative critiques or panel-based scoring systems that have traditionally dominated advertising awards.
EDO's sophisticated methodology tracks quantifiable behaviors—including website traffic spikes, branded search queries, and social media engagement—occurring within minutes after each commercial broadcast. This data-driven approach provides marketers with concrete evidence of campaign performance, moving beyond traditional sentiment analysis to capture actual audience response and purchase intent signals. By focusing on what consumers do rather than what they say they might do, EDO offers a predictive model of advertising ROI that correlates strongly with actual sales lift.
Performance Metrics That Matter
According to Kevin Krim, President and Chief Executive Officer of EDO, this year's results underscore a fundamental shift in how the industry evaluates advertising effectiveness. "This year's Super Bowl continues to make one thing clear: opinions don't matter, outcomes do," Krim stated in the report's release. "On the biggest stage, we saw brands compete fiercely for a highly engaged audience, delivering compelling creative designed to move consumers closer to purchase rather than earn high marks from critics or survey respondents."
This philosophy represents a departure from traditional advertising measurement that relied heavily on recall studies and likability scores. Instead, EDO's real-time behavioral data captures the immediate digital footprint left by viewers who respond to commercials by seeking more information online. The ranking reveals that AI-driven companies entered the broadcast with strategic intent and precision targeting, generating disproportionate levels of consumer interaction compared to their relative media spend.
This performance suggests that emerging technology brands have matured significantly in their marketing approach, leveraging the massive Super Bowl viewership to drive measurable business results rather than merely building broad awareness. These companies crafted messages that demystified complex technologies while providing clear pathways for consumer exploration.
Equally significant was the power of nostalgic marketing elements in capturing Millennial audiences, who now represent the largest purchasing demographic with substantial disposable income. Campaigns that tapped into cultural touchpoints from the 1990s and early 2000s—featuring revived characters, retro aesthetics, or period-specific music—resonated strongly, driving engagement rates well above category averages and demonstrating the financial value of emotional connection.
The snack food category also demonstrated remarkable effectiveness, with straightforward product propositions outperforming complex health-focused messaging by significant margins. This finding challenges recent trends toward wellness-oriented advertising that has dominated CPG marketing for several years. The data suggests that clarity, appetite appeal, and direct value offers remain paramount in high-stakes broadcast environments where attention is fragmented and competition for mindshare is intense.
Strategic Insights from Industry Leaders
Laura Grover, Senior Vice President and Head of Client Solutions at EDO, emphasized the consistent elements behind successful Super Bowl campaigns across diverse categories. "When it comes to Super Bowl advertising, value propositions, familiar cultural cues, and compelling offers consistently drive measurable consumer response and predictive business outcomes," Grover explained in her analysis of the results.
She noted that this proven formula worked effectively across both traditional Big Game sectors—such as beverages, snacks, and entertainment—and fast-growing emerging industries like generative AI and pharmaceutical innovations. "The Super Bowl isn't just a creative exercise—it's one of the most powerful advertising moments of the year to drive real business impact, and this year's results reinforce that fundamental truth for marketers everywhere," Grover added.
The analysis indicates that brands achieving the highest engagement scores shared common strategic characteristics: clear articulation of product benefits, recognizable cultural references that created instant connection, and immediate calls-to-action that viewers could easily follow during or after the game. These elements combined to create what Grover termed "activation-ready creative"—advertising that entertains while simultaneously removing friction from the consumer journey.
Emerging Patterns and Category Disruption
Several notable macro-trends emerged from this year's comprehensive data set. Artificial intelligence platforms collectively dominated engagement metrics across the board, signaling the technology sector's successful transition from niche B2B marketing to mainstream consumer communication. This shift reflects both growing public interest in AI tools and services and the sector's improved ability to translate technical capabilities into consumer benefits.
The pharmaceutical category, particularly brands promoting GLP-1 medications and other health innovations, experienced mixed results that highlight the unique challenges of regulated industries. While some campaigns successfully captured audience attention through patient stories and benefit simplification, others struggled to translate complex medical information into immediate consumer action—a challenge unique to sectors operating under strict creative and compliance constraints.
Millennial nostalgia proved to be a cross-industry success factor with remarkable consistency, with automotive, technology, and entertainment brands all benefiting from references to childhood memories and cultural icons from the target demographic's formative years. This strategy effectively bridges emotional connection with purchase intent, leveraging shared cultural experiences to build brand affinity quickly.
Perhaps most surprisingly, traditional snack brands outperformed health-focused beverage and food companies by substantial margins, reversing a multi-year trend toward wellness messaging that has permeated grocery aisles and advertising channels. The data suggests that during major live events and celebratory viewing occasions, consumers respond more favorably to indulgence positioning and clear flavor propositions than to functional benefits or nutritional claims. Context, it appears, heavily influences message effectiveness.
Implications for Future Broadcast Advertising
The Super Bowl LX findings provide a clear roadmap for marketers planning major television investments in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Success requires balancing creative ambition with strategic clarity—entertaining audiences while simultaneously driving them toward specific digital destinations without creating cognitive dissonance.
For technology brands, particularly those in the AI space, the results validate the Super Bowl as a viable platform for launching consumer-facing products, provided campaigns include clear value explanations and accessible entry points. The AI sector's strong showing demonstrates that even complex offerings can generate immediate interest when presented with compelling simplicity and relatable use cases.
Consumer packaged goods companies can draw confidence from snack brands' performance, which reaffirms that straightforward product appeals remain highly effective even as health trends dominate broader marketing conversations. The key appears to be matching message tone to viewing context—indulgence and immediate gratification resonate during celebratory events, while wellness messaging may perform better in other contexts.
Entertainment brands, particularly film studios, continue to benefit from the Super Bowl's massive reach, with movie trailers and promotional spots driving significant search activity and ticket pre-sales. The combination of star power, visual spectacle, and clear release date information creates an ideal formula for engagement that has remained effective for decades.
Conclusion
EDO's Super Bowl LX analysis reinforces that in modern advertising, measurable impact trumps subjective acclaim as the ultimate success indicator. As brands invest millions in single broadcast spots, the ability to drive immediate consumer behavior—from website visits to product searches—has become the definitive success metric that justifies the substantial price tag.
The convergence of AI marketing maturity, nostalgic cultural positioning, and classic product-focused messaging defined this year's most effective campaigns. For marketers across industries, these insights offer valuable lessons in balancing creativity with accountability, emotion with action, and brand building with performance marketing objectives.
As television's premier advertising event continues evolving with new technologies and changing viewer behaviors, one principle remains constant: the most successful Super Bowl ads don't just capture attention—they convert it into measurable business outcomes that drive revenue and growth long after the final whistle blows.