Toyota's "Upstream" is the most effective commercial of Super Bowl LV
An Unruly analysis of the Super Bowl shows that Toyota’s «Upstream» campaign is the most effective ad of Super Bowl LV. The commercial ranks ahead of Jeep, Bass Pro Shops, and M&Ms in this year’s list of the best Super Bowl ads compiled by the video ad tech company.
Unruly's research revealed that Toyota's commercial featuring Paralympian Jessica Long was the best ad campaign of this year's Super Bowl. The ad evoked intense emotions in viewers with exceptional frequency and had a remarkably positive impact on brand and performance metrics.
The company, which is part of Tremor International, measured consumer reactions to all major Super Bowl LV commercials using its content testing tool UnrulyEQ and then evaluated them using the "UnrulyEQ" score. According to Unruly, the combined metric describes a campaign's ability to engage consumers and influence key KPIs such as brand preference and purchase intent.
Toyota emotionalizes the most
Four of the 44 commercials tested achieved an outstanding score of 8.1 on the 10-point scale. However, pole position went to the Toyota car brand, whose one-minute commercial generated more emotional engagement than any other commercial in this year's Super Bowl.
"The Middle", Jeep's call for national unity starring Bruce Springsteen, and Bass Pro Shop's tribute to nature, "Get Back To Nature", came in joint second place. Both spots triggered intense emotions in 60 percent of viewers. The M&Ms spot "Come Together" and the NFL spot "As One" came fourth and fifth.
Other brands in the top 10 of the ranking are Doritos, DoorDash, Anheuser-Busch and Cadillac. The Amazon, Bud Light and Pringles commercials did not make it into the top ten.
Spots generally rated positively
This year's Super Bowl ads were remarkably well received overall. They achieved an average UnrulyEQ score of 7.4, which is almost three points higher than in 2020 (Werbewoche.ch reported). The commercials also generated intense emotional responses 53 percent more frequently than in the previous year.
| Rank | Brand | Campaign | UnrulyEQ Score (0 to 10) | Intensity of emotional engagement (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toyota | "Upstream" | 8.1 | 63% |
| 2 | Jeep | "The Middle" | 8.1 | 60% |
| 2 | Bass Pro Shops | "Get Back To Nature" | 8.1 | 60% |
| 4 | M&Ms | "Come Together" | 8.1 | 55% |
| 5 | NFL | "As One" | 8 | 61% |
| 6 | Doritos | "#FlatMatthew" | 8 | 54% |
| 7 | DoorDash | "The Neighborhood" | 7.9 | 56% |
| 8 | Anheuser-Busch | "Let's Grab A Beer" | 7.8 | 51% |
| 8 | Remy Cointreau | "Love Letter" | 7.8 | 51% |
| 10 | Fiverr | "Opportunity Knocks" | 7.8 | 50% |
| 10 | Cadillac | "ScissorHandsFree" | 7.8 | 50% |
| US standard | 5 | 32% |
The Toyota commercial tells the story of Team Toyota athlete Jessica Long, which begins with her adoption by an American couple from a Russian orphanage. The video made it to first place in the ranking - according to Unruly, around 63% of viewers had an intense emotional reaction to the content. This makes "Upstream" the most inspiring of all the Super Bowl commercials tested. It also created intense feelings of joy, surprise and amazement.
These intense emotional reactions have a significant impact on the brand metrics. Together with Doritos, Toyota was the most likely to make consumers want to know more (70%). Brand preference (66%) and purchase intention (66%) are also well above the US norm.
The commercials "Legends" by Bud Light and "It Wasn't Me" by Cheetos were the most likely to make people laugh. 17 percent of viewers, more than four times the norm, found the content funny.
"This year's Super Bowl was an emotional firework display," explains Sebastian Buss, Insight & Solutions Director Germany at Unruly. "More people felt intense emotions than at any of the five previous Super Bowls we have tested. The performance and brand metrics were also far above what we've ever seen at the Super Bowl before."
"It's really interesting to take a closer look at the ads that made it to the top of our ranking," adds Jens Oberbeck, Managing Director DACH at Unruly. "While many of the campaigns feature celebrities trying to make us laugh, some of the top performers deviated noticeably from this tried and tested formula. Instead, they focus on big emotions and stories that capture the zeitgeist, such as overcoming obstacles together, experiencing freedom and nature and being good to each other. Toyota's commercial, for example, is all about the bond between mother and child, embedded in the life journey of an athlete striving for success. Similarly, Bass Pro Shops eschews celebrity endorsements and focuses on epic images of outdoor adventures. All things that move us in these uncertain times, characterized by new challenges and major restrictions."
The commercials of the top 10
For the Study Unruly analyzed the emotional responses of 3,657 US consumers to 44 commercials that aired during Super Bowl LV. This was done using the content measurement tool "UnrulyEQ", which helps advertisers maximize the impact of their video content across multiple screens.The results were then compared with the Unruly database of thousands of tested advertising videos.
The Unruly EQ score describes a combined metric that summarizes emotional engagement (the percentage of people who feel an intense emotion), brand impact (the percentage of people who have improved their opinion of the brand) and purchase potential (the percentage of people who intend to buy the product). Ads that achieved the same UnrulyEQ score were additionally ranked based on the measured intensity of emotional engagement. The average UnrulyEQ score is 5.0.
