iSpot’s Ace Metrix Creative Assessment video ad testing has been gauging consumer response to Super Bowl ads* for 13 years and counting. With so many different goals in mind for brands, evaluating Super Bowl ad success cannot be limited to a single measure or ranking. That’s not to say Creative Assessment data doesn’t correlate with other viewer-driven measures of success (it does). But general population viewers may also disagree with pundits and other industry experts:
We’re venturing into iSpot’s Super Bowl Creative Effectiveness archives in the weeks leading up to the Big Game, to bring you a range of insights on trends, spotlight ads, and viewer response. While last week we broke into the celebrity craze, this week we review some interesting ways financial brands have shown up on gameday.
Financial Brands’ Super Bowl Ad Investments Are on the Rise
It’s not surprising that financial brands have historically shied away from the Super Bowl stage since the industry doesn’t have as broad an appeal as others, such as snack and candy brands. However, aided in part by the crypto craze of last year, the Super Bowl saw a sharp influx of ads from financial brands in 2022 – and 2021 – accounting for 12-15% of total ad minutes.
Established brands like TurboTax, Rocket Mortgage, and E*Trade have been regular Big Game advertisers in most of the previous five years (and even before then). Meanwhile, rising consumer-facing fintech brands Robinhood, Klarna, Greenlight, and eToro also entered the game in 2021 and 2022, seeking the broad awareness opportunity proffered by Super Bowl Sunday.
Are Finances Funny?
Most of us take our finances seriously, so going for laughs can be risky for these brands, but on Super Bowl Sunday? You bet your bottom dollar they can be funny! In fact, 50% of the most Likeable financial ads of the past five Super Bowls utilized humor to win over viewers.
But getting the humor just right can be tricky. Since 2010, funny financial ads were clearly more Likeable than those that took a more serious approach, but earned only slightly higher overall resonance (as measured by the Ace Score*).
Rocket Mortgage has clearly found a way to blend levity with finances, holding three of the funniest financial industry Super Bowl spots from 2018-2022. E*Trade took second place while crypto brand FTX grabbed fourth. Expecting to air its tenth consecutive spot in Super Bowl LVII, TurboTax has not yet broken into the top five bracket. The software company has historically used unusual humor that is a little less universal (monsters under the bed, anyone?).
Funniest Financial Super Bowl Ads 2018-2022
| SB Year | Brand | Ad Title | Celebrity | Funny Score* | Other emo | Purchase Intent vs. category norm |
| 2020 | Rocket Mortgage | Jason Momoa Super Bowl 2020 | Single | 7.1 | Ingenious | +11 |
| 2018 | E*Trade | This is Getting Old | No | 5.5 | Ingenious | +12 |
| 2021 | Rocket Mortgage | Certain is Better: Joey Bosa | Multiple | 5.0 | Curiosity/ Memorable | +14 |
| 2022 | FTX | Don’t Miss Out | Single | 4.0 | WTF | 0 |
| 2021 | Rocket Mortgage | Certain is Better | Multiple | 3.7 | Quirky | +10 |
*out of 10
Celebrity Cheat Code
Four of the funniest financial spots featured at least one celebrity, with Tracy Morgan earning the ‘best celebrity’ crown for his ability to spur consideration of Rocket Mortgage at rates well above annual mortgage TV ad norms. In 2021, Morgan convincingly detailed the many life situations in which being “Certain is Better” in two gameday spots: one with the help of Dave Bautista, and another with the help of Joey Bosa. Meanwhile, Jason Momoa delivered for the brand in 2020 through an Ingenious display of how we all ‘let down our hair’ at home.
Meanwhile, Larry David was certainly entertaining in FTX’s “Don’t Miss Out,” but the confusion surrounding crypto (WTF emotion) had many viewers resisting the urge to jump into the category (with consideration not rising above annual investment advertising norms). The Super Bowl ad lesson here is that viewers still expect clarity on the product as well as to be entertained. More on this later.
Eschewing celebrities, E*Trade ingeniously but saliently made the point for retirement savings by showing 85-year-old lifeguards, DJs, postal carriers and firemen humorously struggling in their work. These eye-opening scenes convinced viewers to consider the brand at a rate +12 points over the average investment ad.
Not making the top five list but still worth a look was Klarna’s 2021 “The Four Quarter-Sized Cowboys”; the fintech brand’s first entry in the Super Bowl. The ad was Funny, but also quite strange with four tiny Maya Rudolphs riding horses in a Western town setting – sparking WTF, Irksome, Inappropriate, Left Field, Eerie, Quirky, and even Awful emotional reactions among viewers – talk about standing out. However, the ad also conveyed Klarna’s message – allowing consumers to make four installment payments on their purchases. This clarity of product drove a purchase intent +4 points over the financial norm (and met the brand’s stated objective).
The ability of these narratives to prove each brand’s POV to the audience in imaginative ways – not just entertaining – drives the success seen.
Rookie Dilemma
With the entrance of crypto and fintech, the financial industry also demonstrates the conundrum facing rising brands new to the Big Game as well as to consumers in general, making the need to entertain and inform even more daunting. Delivering an entertaining or arresting ad is paramount to breaking through, but at times, these efforts can place the brand in the background, leaving a portion of the audience unable to recall the brand.
A deeper look at viewer response to these ads unveils more of the struggle, with a lot of negative emotion sparked by the rookie spots. Being unique helps, but it can be an expensive trial if:
- The humor (or celebrity) appeals only to a limited segment of the larger gameday audience (lower Likeability).
- The narrative causes viewers so much consternation that they struggle to connect the scenes with a product (often sparking WTF and Inappropriate response).
- The creative simply distracts to the point of the brand being missed (low recall).
Rookie Financial Super Bowl Ads 2021-2022
| SB Year | Brand | Ad Title | Celebrity | Likeability Score | Brand Recall (unaided) | Top Two Emos | Purchase Intent vs. category norm |
| 2022 | Greenlight | I’ll Take It | Single | 616 | 71% | Inappropriate, Quirky | +7 |
| 2022 | FTX | Don’t Miss Out | Single | 596 | 56% | Funny, WTF | 0 |
| 2021 | Robinhood | We Are All Investors | No | 563 | 69% | Awful, Dishonest | +8 |
| 2021 | Klarna | The Four Quarter-Sized Cowboys | Single | 557 | 57% | Inappropriate, WTF | +4 |
| 2022 | Crypto.com | Make History | Single | 552 | 71% | WTF, Dislike | -2 |
| 2022 | eToro | Imagine a World | No | 485 | 40% | WTF, Dislike | -2 |
| 2022 | Coinbase | QR: That’s What I Want | No | 236 | 43% | Incredulous/Waste of Time/Awful | -19 |
*The average five-year Super Bowl Likeability Score was 641.
Greenlight and Robinhood achieved the best balance of both informing on the product to drive consideration and keeping the brand centered to cement recall at or near 70%. While Crypto.com also achieved awareness with their Super Bowl buy, general confusion surrounding the category limited intent in a fate similar to FTX. Of course, viewer response is just one (albeit important) measure of a campaign’s success, with the possibility of social chatter and unpaid media coverage also potential goals for these brands, as demonstrated by the Coinbase “QR Code” spot last year.
Lastly, the economic environment has particular sway for financial brands. While all advertisers need to read the room for consumer sentiment when developing a campaign, rising inflation and a looming recession might lead to very different responses to financial service ads (like during the 2012 recession) in Super Bowl LVII. As many financial ads pronounce, past performance is not a guarantee of future success.
Want more Super Bowl insights ahead of the game? Visit our Super Bowl Ad Center for a deeper look at some of the best 2023 teasers and emerging pre-game trends as well as real-time updates and analytics on Game Day.
Footnotes:
*Super Bowl ads are defined as airing whistle to whistle (in-game) in these statistics.
*Ace Score is a measure of the overall resonance of an ad among viewers, reflecting both how Attention-getting and Likeable an ad is, as well as other performance metrics such as Relevance, uniqueness, and Information) delivered.
*Note that some statistics range from 2014-2022, the point at which iSpot began reporting a more complex mix of performance metrics (such as emotional reactions).