Cheetos Commercial Is Early Frontrunner In Battle For Super Bowl LV Crown
Leading ad platform Unruly launches Super Bowl 2021 ad ranking, with snack brand’s “It Wasn’t Me”, also starring singer Shaggy, leading the way
NEW YORK – February 5, 2021 – Cheetos’ “It Wasn’t Me” is the early frontrunner in the battle to be crowned the most effective ad of Super Bowl LV.
That’s according to new research from leading ad platform Unruly which today launched a chart of the best-performing ads of Super Bowl 2021 using its content testing tool UnrulyEQ.
Super Bowl LV, which will be contested between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, doesn’t kick off until this Sunday (February 7) at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. But with many brands releasing their Big Game spots online early, the battle for this year’s Super Bowl ad crown is already well underway.
Unruly is ranking all of the big ads from this year’s Super Bowl using its proprietary metric EQ Score — a composite score based on a campaign’s ability to not only engage consumers, but also drive brand metrics such as brand favorability and purchase intent.
Leading the way so far going into Super Bowl weekend is Cheetos, with a score of 7.5 out of 10.
The ad, which stars celeb couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, is currently topping the chart after generating an intense emotional response from 50% of people who viewed the ad – a 55% increase from the US norm.
However, with only 11 ads tested so far, Cheetos’ spot will face some stiff competition over the next few days.
The campaign, featuring Shaggy performing a remixed version of his famous hit song, was more than four times as funny as the average US ad and generated more than twice the level of happiness. Fifty-seven per cent of viewers also came away with a more favorable view of the brand.
That put it just ahead of Michelob’s “Happy” and Chipotle’s “Can A Burrito Change The World?” in second and third respectively. Both scored 7.4, but Michelob finished ahead of Chipotle because it generated more emotional engagement.
Most Effective Ads Of Super Bowl LV – Compiled by Unruly
| Rank | Brand | Campaign | EQ score (out of 10) | % of people who were Intensely emotional engaged |
| 1. | Cheetos | “It Wasn’t Me” | 7.5 | 50% |
| 2. | Michelob Ultra | “Happy” | 7.4 | 53% |
| 3. | Chipotle | “Can A Burrito Change The World?” | 7.4 | 49% |
| 4. | Logitech | “Defy Logic” | 7.3 | 48% |
| 5. | Tide | “The Jason Alexander Hoodie” | 7.2 | 44% |
| 6. | Pringles | “Space Return” | 7.1 | 43% |
| 7. | Bud Light | “Bud Light Legends” | 7.0 | 46% |
| 8. | Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade | “Last Year’s Lemons” | 6.8 | 44% |
| 9. | Amazon | “Alexa’s Body” | 6.5 | 41% |
| 10. | Squarespace | “5 to 9” | 6.4 | 44% |
| US Norm | 5 | 32% |
Logitech is currently in fourth, while Tide’s Jason Alexander ad takes fifth spot. All ads have so far generated a stronger emotional response than the US average, suggesting emotions could be running higher than usual this year.
Unruly’s Super Bowl 2021 final ranking will be released next week following the game.
For more data, visit Unruly’s Super Bowl LV Ad Hub.
Methodology
Unruly is analyzing the emotional responses of US consumers to the biggest ad campaigns aired during Super Bowl LV using its content measurement tool, UnrulyEQ. The results will then be compared to Unruly’s database of thousands of ads. Ads with the same EQ scores are ranked by how much intense emotional engagement they generated. The average EQ Score for US ads is 5.0.
UnrulyEQ is a product suite which delivers higher emotional impact and better business outcomes for advertisers using the power of video. UnrulyEQ uses a combination of audience panels, facial coding and machine learning to help advertisers understand the emotional triggers in their advertising and build out target audiences for campaign distribution.
