See Who’s Winning the Super Bowl of Advertising

Tune in Sunday for real-time data on the Super Bowl advertisers, plus post-game analysis on Monday

The Super Bowl doesn’t just happen on the field but on the airwaves and over the internet – it’s one of the biggest annual consumer events in the US, and this year Similarweb shared real-time data throughout the game. As promised, we went back through the numbers Monday morning to see see which brands got the most lift out of their Super Bowl ads.

Update: Monday Feb. 10, 2025

We looked at searches per hour during the game and during the same hours during the three days leading up to the game, establishing which ads prompted viewers to search while the game was still going on.

One advertiser, streaming service Tubi, saw an increase of nearly 3,000%, but that was likely because they were also live streaming the game. For the same reason, we’re not including the NFL on the list below because their nearly 2,000% increase in search volume has an inherent connection to the game.

Consumer brands that saw a measurable increase in search volume included Marvel, which saw a lift both for its corporate brand and for the preview of its forthcoming Thunderbolts movie, with search volume up over 3,000% …

… and flavored water bottle maker Cirkul saw an increase of over 1,600% after airing a comic ad featuring Adam Devine.

This is a preliminary analysis – we will follow up with traffic numbers and other more detailed metrics for interested clients and journalists in the coming days.

For other brands, the benefit was not as clear, based on search volume. OpenAI ran an ad for ChatGPT, which already attracts heavy search volume, and the increase in searches for “chatgpt” was just 12%. On the other hand, search volume for ChatGPT was 20 times higher than for Cirkul, and OpenAI saw a 67% increase in searches on the company name.

TurboTax was a Super Bowl advertiser, as it is most years, given the approach of the April 15 tax filing deadline in the US – but search volume on the brand name was no higher than on other days. Meta (with its Ray Ban glasses), GoDaddy, DoorDash, and Salesforce are a few other digital brands that didn’t seem to spark any additional search interest with their ads.

Here is another way of visualizing the relative volume of search activity gained by Tubi, Cirkul, Marvel, HexClad, MSC Cruises, and Poppi, with TurboTax as a point of comparison.

Live Data from Sunday

The chart below shows a six-hour snapshot of search interest in the brands of the Super Bowl advertisers and celebrity spokespeople appearing in the ads or as part of the entertainment program. The Digital Data updates every 15 minutes, and the clock will stop at midnight (US Eastern Time), by which point the chart will cover the online action that took place during the entire game.

Editors: write to press@similarweb.com for a version of this graphic you can embed in your own publication.

What you see above is raw search volume data, before it has been polished into a more complete model with SEO and click-through metrics. If you’re looking at this on Friday or Saturday, the numbers may already reflect how much interest the advertisers have generated with YouTube versions of the ads released ahead of the game. On Sunday, you will see how much the numbers change for, say, GoDaddy, after its ad is played to millions of Americans.

Will digital advertisers drive the most viewers to search for more information about their products? Or will it be the beer commercials?

We will update this blog on Monday with our observations on how the digital marketing game played out as the football game went on.

The Chiefs vs. the Eagles, online

Just for fun, we also thought it would be interesting to see how search volume on terms related to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles plays out, hour by hour during the game. Click PLAY on the graphic below. If you’re visiting this blog on Friday, Saturday, or early in the day Sunday, you’re seeing how search interest is fluctuating in anticipation of the game.

On Sunday, you will see how it changes in reaction to the game, whether that’s people searching on the betting odds for one team versus the other or searching to settle a bar bet about the history of the teams.

Want to learn more? See how the world’s top brands use Similarweb’s real-time data to stay ahead. 

The Similarweb Press Office can pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Methodology

Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.

by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".