As with other Super Bowl advertising, sentimentality and strong emotional content were big drivers of highly viewed advertising content.
A commercial featuring a lost dog — to
be found and helped by horses — led Budweiser to the top viewing spot, according to TiVo’s second-by-second analysis.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was a public service announcement
about domestic violence from the Joyful Heart Foundation, which was the second-best-viewed Super Bowl commercial.
The spot portrayed a home in disarray — showing poorly patched holes in
walls with no pictures, disheveled furniture, and a woman dialing 911 under the guise of ordering a pizza.
The Coca-Cola spot “Make It Happy,” about transforming hateful Internet
talk, came in at 9th place. In 10th place was a Nissan commercial “With Dad,” focused on a Nissan race car driver and the angst and frustrations of juggling a career and his family with
the Harry Chapin song “Cat’s In the Cradle” running as the soundtrack.
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The other best-viewed spots in order (third to eighth place) were: Doritos, “Middle Seat”;
Nationwide Insurance, “Invisible Mindy Kaling”; Supercell, “Clash of Clans 'Revenge' Feat with Liam Neeson”; Fiat 500X,“Blue Pill”; Snickers, “‘The
Brady Bunch' featuring Danny Trejo”; and Avocados From Mexico, “First Draft Ever.”
A major category was movies — where some eights spot ran, more than in the past two
years combined. NBC, which aired the game, had five of the eight spots coming from Universal Pictures — “Jurassic World,” “Minions,” “Furious 7,”
“Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Ted 2.” Other movies include Walt Disney’s “Tomorrowland,” “Perfect Pitch 2,” and Paramount’s
“Terminator: Genisys.”
There were also two movie spots before the game: Liongate’s “The Divergence Series: Insurgent” and 20th Century Fox’s
“Kingsman: The Secret Service.” Another big category insurance — five spots — the combined total of the three prior Super Bowls.
By TiVo’s count NBC aired 27
promos, Fox’s 28, in 2014. NBC aired 23 60-second spots; Fox had 20 the year before.
TiVo’s research of Super Bowl analysis come from second-by-second audience data from
approximately 30,000 anonymous TV homes.