Brands cash in on most-watched Super Bowl in history

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The Kansas City Chiefs and their fans got a win on quite literally one of the biggest stages in the world.

Sunday’s Super Bowl was one of the most-watched television events in history with a staggering 123.4 million viewers, outpacing last year’s record of 115.1 million according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. That figure was the maximum number of people watching at one time. It’s estimated that there were more than 202 million watching throughout the telecast, a 10% bump from last year’s Super Bowl at 184 million.

• As we previously reported, a number of brands got their time in the sun including Etsy, Temu, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and Bud Light.

Temu specifically swung for the fences after making its Super Bowl debut last year, and between January 2022 and November 2023 has increased its advertising budget 1,000%, according to Mediaradar. For this year’s Super Bowl, companies spent an average of $7 million for a 30-second ad, but Temu doubled down and did $15 million in giveaways.

“A key part of their strategy has been investing heavily in social media, which accounted for 76% of their ad spend. They are pairing that with committing to high-profile TV spots, like the Super Bowl. This has definitely contributed to their increased brand awareness over the last year,” Todd Krizelman, MediaRadar’s CEO said in a statement.