Business Insider: What Meltwater’s data reveals about the Super Bowl 2025’s brand winners

In the high-stakes arena of Super Bowl advertising, data is the ultimate referee. Business Insider recently featured Meltwater’s deep-dive analysis into the brands that dominated the digital conversation during this year’s Big Game. While the field was crowded with celebrity cameos, our data shows a mix of surprise, star power, and sentiment drove the highest ROI.

Read the full article here: Business Insider, Nike had the buzziest Super Bowl ad on social media, data shows

Key Data Insights: The Winning Playbook

Meltwater data showed the clear winners across three critical metrics: Engagement, Reach, and Sentiment.

• Engagement Winner: Returning to the Super Bowl for the first time in 27 years, Nike secured the #1 spot for social media engagement. The brand generated 188,000 engagement actions (likes, comments, and shares), outperforming its closest competitor by 40,000 actions.
• Reach & Impressions Leader: While Nike won on interaction, Dunkin’ dominated on visibility. The "DunKings" campaign, featuring Ben Affleck and Bill Belichick, garnered 38.4 million impressions, the highest reach of any advertiser.
• Sentiment Champion: Jeep’s commercial featuring Harrison Ford took the prize for the most positive public sentiment. Conversely, Pfizer’s ad faced challenges, generating the highest negative sentiment of the night.

What sets the 2025 winners apart? According to Meltwater’s Chief Strategy Officer, Alexandra Bjertnæs, the most successful brands prioritized human connection over futuristic themes.

"The brands with the best performance wisely chose to recognize the societal moment in time, leaning into humor, comfort, and relatability, rather than aspiration and future-gazing," said Bjertnæs.

Meltwater is a global leader in media, social, and consumer intelligence, helping over 27,000 brands worldwide understand and shape their stories across media, social, and LLM environments. Learn more about Meltwater.