The decision to use celebrities in advertising is a heavily weighted one. The high cost of featuring star talent itself is a hurdle for most advertisers. But the fit with the brand is where the real challenge lies, given the potential for unexpected and potentially unflattering news.
However, if done right, there is nothing like an A-list actor or top athlete to break through TV ad clutter, driving more engagement and memorability of an ad and paying dividends for the brand.
Celebrity Rising
As the number of Super Bowl ads featuring celebrities has increased, so has the use of female celebs. The female empowerment of the mid-2010s galvanized expectations of gender equality in recent years and brands have listened.
A study of iSpot Creative Assessment data from Super Bowls past reveals that two in three Super Bowl LVII ads leaned on celebrity, with more than 60% of these featuring multiple actors, influencers, or athletes. Two in three celebrity ads included at least one female celebrity in response to a very diverse Super Bowl audience.
With the NFL (and Taylor Swift) working hard to expand the age range of the league’s audience, and to include women in particular, the rise of female celebrities will be something to watch in 2024. Although female presence has improved, women remain under-represented, with males historically getting the leading role (as measured by dialogue) more than 75% of the time.
Percent of Super Bowl Ads by Female Role
Careful Combinations
Super Bowl advertisers are now also dipping deeper into the talent pool to bring together unique – if expensive – combinations of talent that span genres and generations; their goal is to spark interest and entertain viewers in hopes of capturing “likeability*” (a key metric in Creative Assessment) across the very broad range of consumers that tune into the NFL’s ultimate match-up. Several 2023 Big Game spots demonstrate this point:
T-Mobile “New Year. New Neighbor”
NFL “Run With It”
Doritos “Jack’s New Angle”
Michelob Ultra “New Member’s Day”
Cheetos’ 2021 musical Super Bowl spots also come to mind, with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Shaggy giving viewers a whole new reason to claim “It Wasn’t Me.” It’s this potential that compels brands to reach for the stars on advertising’s biggest day.
In the high-stakes game of celebrity-driven advertising, the decision to feature A-listers in Super Bowl ads is both a financial hurdle and branding challenge. But successfully aligning star power with brand identity and consumer products can cut through the clutter amid competition for attention on TV. Look to Super Bowl LVII to see this play out again in your living room, and have your popcorn ready.
Stay on top of emerging Big Game ad trends as they unfold in our Super Bowl 2024 Ad Center, which features the latest teasers and pre-releases. Request VIP access for a front-row seat to creative and audience analytics for every Big Game ad that airs on February 11, including likeability, attention, and emotional impact, all within the iSpot dashboard.
*Likeability: Measures the extent to which viewers like an ad. Scores range from 1-950 and +/- 25 points is statistically significant. The norm of the last five Super Bowls is 641.