Blogs

Every year Meta’s Creative Shop looks at campaigns from around the globe that broke through on Facebook, Instagram and our other platforms and releases The Creative Forecast, an exploration of creative trends for the future driven by cultural shifts. What we saw in our most recent look at high-performing ad creative was an inflection point: Powerful influences—from activism to the pandemic—changed culture in profound ways and led people to push brands to be more aware, personal, and participatory.

Few sporting events excite an audience, quite like the Super Bowl. Consistently ranked amongst the most-watched games worldwide, 2021’s Super Bowl LV drew an audience of over 91 million viewers.

What goes into putting together a “most talked about” super bowl ad?

A great strategy.
A great idea.
A great client that trusts their gut.
A great client that trusts their gut.
A great client that trusts their gut.

Big cultural moments like The Oscars or Grammys that would gather people around the living room have changed profoundly. The “Big Game”, the most iconic of them all, has historically been seen as parties around the TV.

The Super Bowl presents two forms of entertainment: the annual championship game of the NFL and the most notable commercials. Hundreds of millions of viewers are likely to discuss the ads just as much as the highly-anticipated sporting event. Not to mention, almost 80% of Super Bowl LV viewers watched the game solely for the ads.

A common misstep for brands is when they fail to find out what people are already talking about on places like social. If you aren’t driving content with timely and topical insights – you’re missing an opportunity to create the types of ideas that pull on the levers that stimulate people to connect.

2022 has the potential to be a major year for the advertising and marketing industry — new laws and guidance are going into effect, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reviewing various guides, and new enforcement priorities have emerged.

While COVID-19 will be a lingering source of uncertainty, it shouldn’t be considered the defining factor in the growth of connected TV (CTV) specifically. It’s true the pandemic disrupted the advertising industry as a whole — including an initial significant downshift in advertising and reduced media spending followed by ~15.6% growth in 2021. Predictions for 2022, however, suggest a return to pre-pandemic levels of spending, and the opportunities for savvy marketers to harness the advantages CTV offers make it a prime candidate for that spending.