Emotional impact drives early big game ad success, System1
System1 has revealed which early-release Big Game ads are resonating most strongly with U.S. audiences, based on emotional response and predicted long-term brand growth. Early testing shows 2026 could be the strongest big game ad year yet.
Using its Test Your Ad Competitive Edge platform, the Creative Effectiveness Platform has identified ads from the NFL, Budweiser, Ring, Dove and Pepsi as the strongest performers so far.
Early audience testing shows these campaigns generating high levels of positive emotion, with common creative traits including pop culture references, recognizable music, exaggerated humour and parody. According to System1, these elements are closely linked to long-term brand-building potential.
How Test Your Ad Competitive Edge works
System1’s Test Your Ad Competitive Edge platform draws on a database of more than 100,000 ads, making it the world’s largest set of emotional norms. The platform measures consumer emotional response and assigns a score from 1.0 to 5.9 Stars, indicating predicted long-term brand growth potential. Ads that trigger intense, positive emotions such as happiness and surprise tend to score highest.
Early-release Big Game ads are currently averaging 3.2 Stars, marking the strongest performance at this stage to date and exceeding the 2.3-Star average for U.S. advertising overall. Since 2020, only seven Big Game ads have achieved a 5-Star rating, a level associated with exceptional long-term growth, with two brands reaching that benchmark this year.
Brand recall and distinctive assets
Despite strong creative performance, System1 highlights Fluency, or brand recall, as an ongoing challenge. Ahead of the game, Fluency has dropped to a record low of 77 percent. Ads performing best on this measure tend to rely on distinctive brand codes, memorable characters or consistent use of celebrities to reinforce attribution.
System1 notes that early-release audience favourites tend to succeed by anchoring creativity in familiar cues while maintaining clear brand ownership, ensuring emotional impact translates into recognition.
Creative patterns among top performers
Pop culture references feature prominently across this year’s leading ads. Some brands lean into heritage and origin, while others adopt lighter cultural play, using familiar icons or references to land their message. In each case, System1 observes that the most effective work clearly ties cultural moments back to established brand assets.
Recognizable music also plays a central role, with soundtracks helping to shape emotional journeys through contrast and pacing. Exaggeration and parody are another recurring theme, with playful interpretations of cultural stereotypes, famous icons and competitors delivering surprise and heightened emotional intensity.
Top early-release Big Game ads
The following ads are ranked by Star Rating, indicating predicted long-term brand-building potential. Ads with the same Star Rating are ordered by System1’s Spike Rating, which reflects predicted short-term sales impact.
NFL, You Are Special – 5.9 Stars
Budweiser, American Icon – 5.6 Stars
Ring, Search Party from Ring – 4.5 Stars
Dove, The Game is Ours – 4.3 Stars
Pepsi, The Choice – 4.2 Stars
Hellmann’s, Meal Diamond – 4.1 Stars
Xfinity, Jurassic Park...Works – 4.0 Stars
Bud Light, Keg – 3.7 Stars
Toyota, Superhero Belt – 3.6 Stars
Lay’s, Last Harvest – 3.4 Stars
Jon Evans, chief customer officer, System1: “What’s especially encouraging with this year’s Big Game ads is how many brands are leaning into consistency, building on characters, promises, celebrities and distinctive brand codes that audiences already know and love. With two brands already hitting 5-Stars before kick-off, it’s clear that this is shaping up to be a really strong year for advertisers.”
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