The best Super Bowl commercials 2023

This year, Super Bowl got 10.1M mentions on social media, 7M of them coming from Twitter. As with most sports activities, the Super Bowl was mainly discussed by men (57% of mentions). Kansas City Chiefs, who won the game, was the most discussed team with 5,3M mentions in total, and 70% of the users who mentioned it were men. 

When it comes to Super Bowl related adverts by companies, in total they got 760K mentions in social media. However, while in general discussions about the Super Bowl were positive, commercials related to the event produced  mainly negative feedback. The main reason for this was the amount of money spent on ads. The most drastic example of this was the advertisement for an evangelical Christian website called “He Gets Us” aimed at increasing the popularity of Jesus Christ in American culture. This campaign with its 189.6K mentions was the most widely discussed. 

However, not all brands which placed adverts on the Super Bowl had negative experiences. Here are the top 5 Super Bowl commercials of 2023 that managed to attract the most attention and get the best reviews. 

#1 PopCorners Breaking Bad 

This ad has the biggest number of mentions (83.6K) and the most positive user feedback, even though it wasn't the most popular by the number of views (4.3M).

Social media users started to praise PopCorners Super Bowl commercial almost one week before the start of the Super Bowl. Thanks to actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul who brought back the iconic Breaking Bad characters to the advert, PopCorners gathered  a great bunch of positive reviews. 

#2 Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Flash” movie trailer

This ad came second by number of mentions (71.9K) and positive reviews. However, it wasn’t the leader by number of views on YouTube (1M).

Fans of The Flash eagerly awaited the release of the movie's trailer as a Warner Bros. Super Bowl commercial and started sharing teasers before the official premiere. Users often discussed the movie’s actors  Michael Keaton (9.5K mentions), Ben Affleck (7.2K mentions), and Ezra Miller (6.5K mentions) in their online comments.

#3 Google “#FixedonPixel”

Google Super Bowl Commercial was the most popular on YouTube by number of views (41M). At the same time however, it came third according to the number of discussions on social media (50K mentions). 

User reviews show that the idea of inviting Doja Cat for this collaboration worked brilliantly. Thanks to the singer, some users declared their desire to buy a new phone. 

#4 General Motors & Netflix “Why Not an EV?

General Motors and Netflix Super Bowl Commercial was real outsiders by the number of views compared to other adverts widely discussed on social media. With less than 300K views, this commercial was 4th popular on social media. 

Actor Will Ferrell was the most widely discussed topic in this commercial with 5.7K posts about the ad dedicated to the comedian.

#5 Bud Light “Hold | Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy”

The last ad in our top 5 was one of the most popular Super Bowl ads on YouTube (12M views) and got 35.5K mentions on social media.

A post featuring  a photo of Chiefs quarterback Chad Henne holding a Bud Light beer was the most popular. It received  3.5K retweets and 3.3M views.

The real star though of the Bud Light Super Bowl commercial was Miles Teller, an actor and musician. His name was mentioned in 7.5K social media posts, and thanks to him, the ad captured customers' hearts. In addition, his wife Keleigh Sperry Teller was also featured in the commercial, and her TikTok post about it received the highest volume of engagements (672K).

How much did The Super Bowl adverts cost in 2023? 

According to NBC which was broadcasting the game, it sold out all Super Bowl ads slots for a record $7 million each. In total, TV channel showed about 70 ads and total cost of them is around $500 million.

Key learnings

Super Bowl 2023 brought several important insights for marketers. Firstly, this event is not the best platform to promote religious organizations. Although it has a big coverage, the audience isn't loyal to the church and doesn’t think that it reasonable to make such high financial investments in an advertisement. As a result, it mainly led to reputational damage for the Christian organisation. 

Secondly, the number of ad views on YouTube doesn't correlate with the volume of discussion on social media. Popular ads among social media users do not always catch on equally  on YouTube. 

And the third main conclusion is that collaborations with celebrities are still riding the wave. Although it is an old trick, the audience are much more interested in a product promoted by their favorite actor or singer than in any of the most impressive features this product has.