By now you have probably seen a lot of analyses by research companies, agencies, newspapers and others detailing the performance (or lack thereof) of commercials during Sunday’s Super Bowl. 

And here’s one more, from System1, which tracks the emotions that consumers feel while watching the ads. And, importantly, the tester’s methodology weights towards feelings that behavioral psychology experts associate with action. According to System1, their method provides a picture of the propensity of the ads being measured to forge long-term brand impressions or trigger short-term (10 week) purchases. Which, the firm argues, is more “commercially revealing” than a spot’s entertainment value. 

System1 scores ads for brand impact on a scale of 0 to 5.9 Stars.    

Here is the firm’s brand effectiveness leaderboard for this year’s crops of Super Bowl ads: 

And here are the top ads based on short-term sales lift potential: 

The ad tester said this year’s ads averaged 2.7-Stars, down from 2023’s 2.9-Star average but above the 2.3-Star average for all US ads.  

Brand characters outscored celebrities. Ads with familiar characters like M&M’s “spokescandies” and the E-Trade baby averaged 3.1 Stars, while 39 celebrity ads averaged 2.6 Stars.  

Top brand building ads took diverse approaches to creative effectiveness.  

The firm anointed soccer great Lionel Messi the 2024 advertising MVP for his turn in Michelob Ultra’s “Superior Beach” ad, which landed atop the brand effectiveness rankings.  

The highest-ranking debut advertiser was chocolate brand Lindt, whose chilled-out ad featured a Perry Como soundtrack and their familiar Master Chocolatier character. Pfizer also scored well for a newbie with a Queen-soundtracked ad celebrating 175 years of medical achievement.