Those AI-related ads on the Super Bowl? Mostly duds.
Ad campaigns for AI products and services are falling flat with consumers. But is AI to blame - or is it just bad advertising?
During last week's Super Bowl, only 8 advertisers (14%) referenced AI. Most were simply ads for brands with AI-related products or services. And only one - Holland America Line - actually used generative AI in the ad itself. (If you missed the ad, it's because it only ran regionally.)
Consumer AI attitudes are middling at best - and when it comes to ads created with AI, there's deep skepticism especially among younger consumers, according to research I did last year with IAB.
So, what can AI companies do differently? I recently dissected all the Super Bowl AI ads and why they didn't perform in a webinar with Piotr Bombol, an AI advertising consultant and founder of Adaily, an AI assistant for smart marketing research.
During the webinar we dug into the data on consumer AI attitudes that I gleaned from my Sonata Insights/IAB research.
We also discussed how the ads performed across these metrics:
Ad rankings in the USA Today Ad Meter
Hootsuite brand mentions across the internet
EDO online searches and website traffic
System1 consumer reactions to creative execution
IPSOS blended quantitative + qualitative analysis for Top 10 rankings.
Only Google’s Dream Job, a heartwarming father-daughter story, managed to stand out in the combined rankings. The AI-powered voice assistant played a subtle role, letting the emotions take center stage.
OpenAI’s debut ad was hyped as the next Apple 1985 moment - but instead, it was one of the worst performing ads of the game.
As Piotr said during our webinar, you can't pin all the blame on AI. Here's what we think went wrong:
➡️ Copying a "proven" formula
Most ads followed the usual Super Bowl playbook, celebrities + humor. A safe, overused cliché.
➡️ AI is not an idea
While other brands told engaging stories, AI-focused ads failed to build compelling narratives.
➡️ Product innovation, ordinary execution
Brands played it safe instead of walking the talk.
Advertising on the Super Bowl is an expensive decision if you’re an AI business (or any business for that matter). We learned back in the late-1990s dotcom boom that a splashy marketing campaign in the big game rarely translates to long-term gains. We’ll see as 2025 goes on whether any of the AI companies and products advertised in the Super Bowl were able to get the branding, awareness and (most importantly) business benefit from spending big on a Super Bowl ad.
