YouTube

Touchdown! The top 10 ads that stole the show during Super Bowl LVIII on YouTube

Feb 12, 2024

[[read-time]] min read

Susan Charles

Brand Strategy Lead, Google Canada

What a game! Whether it was Swifties following along to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift, or millennials tuning in to relive the glory days of Usher, this year’s Super Bowl (and football season in general), made headlines everywhere.

Super Bowl LVIII was a close one, and in the end, Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs took home the Lombardi trophy (again) after defeating the San Francisco 49ers. Fans went to sleep singing “Yeah!”, and went online this morning to re-watch their favourite ads from Booking.com, to Mountain Dew, to Universal Pictures.

Although the big game happened last night, on YouTube content has been flowing for weeks leading up to it. Whether it’s finding the best nacho recipe, listening to past Usher albums, watching compilations of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, or simply catching up on highlights, YouTube gives fans near-infinite ways to immerse themselves in football and pop culture. And because of this, YouTube is the best place for brands to connect with their Canadian audiences, and join in on the excitement, whether it’s in the lead up to the big game, game day, or days after. In fact, Super Bowl ads posted on YouTube had more than 90 million views during game day.¹

Several key themes reigned supreme in this year’s ads – 2024 was the year of reunions and taking storytelling to new lengths (literally). Check out what we saw from the top ads:

2024 was the year of reunions. The #1 most watched ad this year was from Booking.com where Tina Fey reunited with her 30 Rock co-stars. #2 on the list for their “Audition” spot, T-Mobile brought JD and Turk from Scrubs together (again) along with Harvey Specter and Mike Ross from Suits. We also saw Mountain Dew make the list at #6, with Parks and Recreation icons Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman riding dragons together. Brands are cashing in on nostalgia by bringing iconic duos & teams back together, and viewers are rejoicing in seeing their favourites back on the big screen.
Humour always wins. Brands are landing big laughs with their lightweight and humorous approaches to their commercials. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger with State Farm. Ranking #3, the ad goes behind-the-scenes to see how the State Farm team tries to teach Arnold how to nail the slogan pronunciation. Hilarity ensues.
And It’s not just one ad - it’s storytelling. SquareSpace brought on legendary Director Martin Scorsese to create their ad this year. But it’s not just one ad. There’s an extended cut, and behind the scenes. And other brands like Doritos have created teaser ads that tell a story, where fans need to wait for game day to see how the story plays out. The longevity of an ad is so much more now than just the first spot. And popular ads from years past are still being searched and watched on YouTube.