Amp spotlight: What Super Bowl 2025 ads tell us about the state of advertising

Super Bowl Sunday brings a high-stakes playground for advertisers, offering them a chance to check the pulse of the ad world. It’s the closest thing marketers have to a crystal ball, providing glimpses into the strategies, themes and platforms that will define the year ahead. And while this year’s ads featured a disturbing recurrence of what can cheekily be described as body horror, such as Coffee mate’s disembodied tongue, flying anthropomorphous facial hair from both Pringles and Little Caesars, and, most disturbingly, Tubi’s literal hat heads, they hinted at deeper shifts in how consumers are thinking and feeling—and how marketers are spending their ad dollars accordingly. 

“With the price of a 30-second spot reaching an all-time high, advertisers are inventing new ways to get people thinking about their brand beyond the ad,” said Rob Hersey, global chief creative officer at UM, referencing Rocket’s anthemic spot, Angel Soft’s “potty-tunity” and Uber Eats’ foodie-football conspiracy campaign, whose IRL stunt saw a “renamed” Super Caesars Salad Dome. “The more expensive it becomes to buy attention, the more advertisers will need to find ways to steal more mental airtime.”

To understand what those new ways might look like for 2025, we asked experts from the Amp community: What key insights can we take away from Super Bowl LIX?

Signs of the times

Super Bowl commercials have always reflected the times, especially when it comes to tech-focused ads. Just as crypto and sports-betting apps dominated ad slots in recent years, this year’s breakout tech star is artificial intelligence. Some AI companies, like OpenAI, made their Super Bowl debut. Other brands, such as GoDaddy, Google and Meta, showcased new AI-centric products and services. GoDaddy’s cinematic ad, featuring actor Walton Goggins, is a perfect example as he promotes their Airo AI solution for web and logo design. One theme that was noticeably absent: politics. Unlike past presidential election/inauguration years, brands are largely steering clear of politically charged messaging. This is a clear sign that advertisers are prioritizing broad appeal and entertainment over controversy. —Sam Zises, CEO, [L]earned Media

Before we talk about sloths—and we will—I want to point out that this year’s ads showed less purpose and more product than previous years. Even the emotional advertisements landed on a product message, like the Google Gemini spot, Jeep’s Americana product lineup and the Hims & Hers spot pitching weight loss prescriptions. There was anthemic work, notably Pfizer, Dove and Nike, which we’ve come to expect from those brands, and Novartis and Lay’s also stood out. Economic uncertainty, a sales-conversion mindset and political pressure (or apolitical safety) are all likely factors. I expect to see more of this product focus throughout the first half of 2025. Oh, and more sloths. Despite all that divides us, I think we can agree the world … needs … more … sloths.… —Grant Owens, chief strategy officer, Critical Mass

I thought this was a better year than many in recent memory. The ads were entertaining and served up the Super Bowl formula of celebs, consumer-generated sight gags, nostalgia, animals, aliens, volcanos, classic rock and tugged heartstrings we’ve come to expect. More brands played with breaking the fourth wall between the spot and a real-time continuation bleeding into the actual game broadcast. There was Rocket’s stadium sing-along to “Take Me Home, Country Roads”; Duracell swapping batteries in Tom Brady; and Peyton Manning loading beer into the Bud Light party cooler for the winning locker room. Seems like a trend we’ll see every year. Given the fragmentation of our shared national attention and the uniquely unifying experience of the Super Bowl, it’s totally worth it if you’ve got the right strategic message and a truly great creative expression. —Derek Barnes, creative, Arts & Letters Creative Co.

There was a fair amount of trying too hard to do too much during this year’s Super Bowl spots. It’s natural; 30 seconds cost $8 million, and the world is watching. Of course you want to pull out all the stops. But whether it was a 30- or 60-second spot, they were jamming in too much content—too many scenes, too many jokes, too many cameos. A lot of folks will watch the spots online, maybe even multiple times, but most Big Game viewers are half-distracted and slightly confused. For most of the spots, I believe people get the gist and think it’s funny, but I also suspect there were a lot of sharp jokes and clever insights that sailed right by much of the viewing public. On the flip side, those ads that were a little simpler or iterated on single ideas stood apart and stuck in my memory more—Homes.com (I’m biased), Instacart, Liquid Death and Totino’s. —Adam Lowrey, senior VP, executive creative director, RPA

The bold, risk-taking mentality of years past will continue to be replaced with dependencies on celebrity cameos and current trends. As always, brands and agencies are facing the challenge to create something memorable to justify the increasingly large investment in the 30-second spot. However, it seems the need to be safe due to a volatile sociopolitical landscape resulted in another collection of underwhelming, forgettable ads from the usual suspects. Our hope is that 2025 will prove to be a year of resurgence and a return to bold statements in the industry, laugh out loud humor and emotional stories that connect with people on a deeper level.” —Kyle Johnston, president, founding partner, Gigasavvy

Building the buzz

The real MVPs this year are the brands treating the Super Bowl like more than a one-night event. They built buzz weeks before kickoff, turning what used to be a 30-second surprise into an extended conversation with their audiences. Take Coors Light’s intentional typo in Times Square or Taco Bell turning their drive-throughs into hubs for fan celebrations. They know their audiences’ triggers and aren’t afraid to pull them early. The postgame water cooler chat isn’t waiting for Monday anymore; it’s happening all around us in real time. In today’s attention economy, even an expensive Super Bowl spot needs to earn its moment beyond the dollars and cents spent to get it on screen. —Shannon Harris, executive creative director, Big Communications

Super Bowl marketing in 2025 isn’t just about the Big Game Day ad—it’s about the conversation brands build in the weeks leading up to it, and after, too. This year, advertisers like Doritos and Tubi tapped into creators and social video to generate buzz before their commercials even aired. Individual creators accounted for about 49% of the 896 million Super Bowl-related video views on U.S. TikTok accounts since Jan. 20, according to Tubular Labs data. Additionally, nearly half of the top 20 Super Bowl-related videos on TikTok in that stretch came from individual creators, while the rest were from the league and its partners. User-generated content and video platforms are making creators a crucial part of the playbook. The brands that win today aren’t just the ones with the best commercial—they’re the ones that turn their campaign into a movement, sparking conversation long before kickoff. —Jill Nicholson, chief marketing officer, Chartbeat, parent company of Tubular Labs

It’s no longer Super Bowl Sunday, it’s Super Bowl Season. Teasers and activations were out of the gate much earlier, with many brands releasing their full spots weeks ahead versus a few days before the Big Game. During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, these brands want to be top of mind for Super Bowl parties. Celebrities are a big draw, and there seems to be someone for every demographic—many of whom transcend generations and mediums. They also seem to be willing to make fun of themselves, not to take themselves too seriously, which makes them even more appealing. It’s also a time in the world where we aren’t sure what tomorrow will bring, and the future is hard to predict. Looking back on nostalgia feels easier and viewers welcome it. —Susan Golkin, executive creative director, VML

Every Super Bowl is a marketing plan. It’s a mini ecosystem of the spot, teaser spots, tons of social content, activations, possibly an event or celeb speaking engagement, out of home, etc. It makes the creative task incredibly challenging in that the spot has to stand up to the rigor of the Super Bowl commentary thunderdome, but at the same time has to be a big idea, media-agnostic enough to fit snugly into this tapestry of an integrated campaign. The second trend is obvious: celebrity. Please let this trend die. Seeing utterly random celeb pairings feels like marketers are just calling CAA and frantically yelling, “Who ya got?” —Mark Fitzloff, founder and executive creative director, Opinionated

Putting second screens first

The second screen isn’t a distraction, it’s a huge opportunity. Brands are realizing that viewers are on their phones during the Super Bowl, so they’re creating ways to connect with them there too. Think interactive live streams like Fetch’s, with behind-the-scenes access, polls and influencer chats. It’s about keeping viewers hooked beyond the commercials and turning them into active participants. This kind of engagement makes the campaign way more memorable and builds a stronger connection with the brand. —Macaela VanderMost, founder and CEO, Newfangled Studios

While we didn’t get our Tubi remote scramble or Opendoor house-sold-in-hours stunt, the little wins from Bud Light and Rocket stood out in their end-of-pod spots. A quick shot of Peyton Manning (who uniquely pulled off dad jorts) filling an in-stadium beer trough, or Rocket leading the stadium in a “Take Me Home, Country Roads” sing-along, added immense value to their commercial breaks. This reinforces what the Super Bowl represents: the largest attentive audience available through a single live TV broadcast. While second-screening has diminished viewer attention across all TV programming, the Super Bowl broadcast is the Holy Grail. Beyond holiday retail, where else do we see such a crowded landscape for ambitious plays? The straightforward approach remains superior: Invest in the Super Bowl, secure the massive exposure it offers and execute flawlessly. —Neil Sawhney, director of media, Pereira O’Dell

Twix’s Second Screen Stare Down was an excellent example of brand-activation tactics this year, inspired by last year’s brilliant DoorDash All the Ads campaign and 2022’s Coinbase ad with its irresistible QR code—both of which invited consumers to engage beyond passive viewership. When viewers are prompted to visit a site, scan a code or engage in some digital fashion, you’re making the brand stickier in the viewer’s memory and capturing your ROI story to fund next year’s Big Game appearance. A win-win! That same strategy of optimizing both the reach of this collective cultural moment and the investment in the buy is also behind the trend of blurring and prolonging the event throughout the pre-game and post-game period. Starbucks, Coors Light and Pringles campaigns are using social for earlier pre-game seeding of campaigns like last year’s buzzy CeraVe campaign. Episodic storytelling is a broader marketing trend this year. What better way to earn the following of consumers than to hook them with your story when you have their almost undivided attention? —Liz Aviles, senior VP of strategy, Amp Agency