Car Companies Win Big at Super Bowl Ad Game

Coinbase's QR code ad at this year's Super Bowl might have broken its website with its disruptive concept, but it was far from the most successful ad when it comes to search traffic. This specific trophy goes to EV car maker Polestar, whose ad poked fun at its competitors Tesla and Volkswagen and performed 23 times better than the average Super Bowl ad of this year's event. As our chart shows, car companies in general seemingly created the most engaging TV ads at Super Bowl LVI.

According to data compiled by analytics company EDO, four out of the top eight spots airing this past Sunday were ads created by automakers. Next to Polestar eking out a 36 point win over health product provider Cue, Kia Motors scored 1,069 index points, followed by Nissan's 852 and Toyota's 806 points. Coinbase also makes the list at seventh position with a score of 814. Interestingly, two out of those four car commercials advertised battery electric vehicles (BEV) instead of models equipped with internal combustion engines. Apart from Polestar's more general ad, Kia showcased its EV6 next to a robotic dog. The rest of the top-performing ads showed off new scenes from Amazon's The Lord of the Rings prequel series, a trailer for a new Jurassic Park movie and the decidedly un-electric sportscar Nissan Z.

Even though viewership has been declining since 2015, the Super Bowl is still one of the most relevant TV events of the year for brands to get their message across to a large U.S. audience. In 2021, about 91 million U.S. residents watched the game, with ad revenue amounting to about $485 million.