From Nike to Bud Light to Tubi: Lessons from the Super Bowl 2025 ads, with Autodesk's Dara Treseder
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There are three things that make a great Super Bowl ad. It's got to be ownable. People need to know that it is your brand. You are spending the money after all. It's got to be memorable. If people can't remember that it happened, you're missing out on the ability to actually drive those business results. And it's got to be relevant.

Because the relevance is what allows you to have the multiplier effect to go from being just a 30 second spot or just a 60 second spot to being something that lasts longer and ultimately drives the business impact that is needed. And I think that this year brands played it safe. There was a real lean in to nostalgia and into what I would call Americana. And some did it right and some didn't do it well.

That's Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer of Autodesk, formerly at Peloton and Apple and GE and more. The morning after the Super Bowl, Dara joined me for a fun chat about the best and worst of this year's Super Bowl ads. From the omnipresence of Matthew McConaughey to the creepy-tooby spot that made everyone get up and leave the room.

Along the way, she shares key marketing lessons about celebrity endorsements, the ROI on making a political statement, and more. So let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response. I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Derek Tresider, the CMO of Autodesk. Derek, welcome back to Rapid Response.

Thank you so much for having me. I am so thrilled. I have been looking forward to this conversation. We're here to talk Super Bowl ads like we did last year at this time. First of all, we should say congratulations to Eagles fans, condolences to Chiefs fans. I guess the same to Kendrick Lamar and Drake fans, right? In some ways, the most memorable night of the evening for me was the Serena Williams cameo in the halftime show, which I almost missed. You were telling me you have a Super Bowl party now?

Absolutely. We had a Super Bowl party at my house. It was wonderful. It was a multi-generational party. So it was really great to see not only my own marketing take, but actually see how the audience and different demographics were responding to the ad. So it was a lot of fun. That was a little focus group. Last year, we talked about sort of whether you would buy a 30-second spot for Autodesk. When you're watching this year, like when you look at it and you say, oh,

maybe I should have. That would have been a good way to spend $8 million or leave the tech messaging to Google and Meta. No, when I was watching the game, I was like, I am very glad with our strategy of not buying an ad in the Super Bowl. Look, I think sometimes it makes sense for your business. And I think you really have to understand what are we trying to accomplish? What are the objectives? And will this help us make that happen? I think that not enough

brands who showed up this year did that calculation, I have to say. So I think we did the right math by deciding to let our customers take center stage. When a game is not close like this game was, from a marketer's point of view, not close, but from a marketer's point of view, is that...

Good, like people are going to spend more time paying attention to the ad? Or is that bad because people aren't like as intensely focused on the screen? It's not good because people are getting up and people are leaving. Consumers start to get distracted and, you know, go back to their lives when it's not as competitive until the very end. So I do think that that has an impact. You're making a bet when you decide where...

You're going to buy your ad. Where in the show, right? Like in some ways it's better to be at the end because people will remember you more, but only if the game is close. Only if the game is close. So that's, again, you got to think about what is the calculus for what you're trying to do, right? You know, I always think that going early and in the middle is safe, right?

Again, it comes down to calculated risk, a clear-eyed risk. What is a clear-eyed risk? You gather as much data as you can, you strip away uncertainty, and then you make a decision with conviction. Going late is a risk that you should only take, right, if you are sure that even if consumers get up and walk away, still that placement makes sense for your brand. But if you're not sure about that, going early or going in the middle is

is probably a good way to make sure that you gather as many eyeballs as is needed. If you're a brand like Autodesk and you haven't bought a Super Bowl spot, how do you participate in the moment, you know, in the attention that's going on around the Super Bowl? Or do you just...

Try to back away. If you have an authentic reason to participate in the conversation, hey, it's as good a time as any to do that. So for us at Autodesk, our software is used to design and make anything, whether it is literally the Caesar Superdome Stadium in NOLA,

that housed it all, or stages like Kendrick's or its ads, like the Michelob Ultra ad, right? Our software is used to design and make anything. So for us, being a part of the conversation makes sense in terms of celebrating our customers who are playing a role in the game. Before we get into the specifics, do you have any like...

Big picture assessments from what you saw about the tone, the mood, the creativity. First of all, let me say that brands played it safe this year. I think the biggest statement of the night was the halftime show, right? The Kendrick Lamar halftime show as Serena coming and making a cameo in there. I think that was actually the biggest statement.

statement. Brands definitely played it safe, leaning more into ownability. There are three things that make a great Super Bowl ad. It's got to be ownable. People need to know that it is your brand. You are spending the money after all. It's got to be memorable. If people can't remember that it happened, you're missing out on the ability to actually drive those business results. And it's got to be relevant because the relevance is what allows you to have the multiplier of

to go from being just a 30 second spot or just a 60 second spot to being something that lasts longer and ultimately drives the business impact that is needed. And I think that this year brands played it safe.

They over-indexed on ownability, and some tried to dab into memorability in some scary ways. I don't think I needed to see seal as a seal, for example. It didn't quite work for me. The dancing tongue from Coffee Mate? No. Oh, that was, you know, that was some odd choices. Pushing creative in a way that maybe creative does not need to be pushed. Yeah.

And then I think from a relevance standpoint, not enough brands thought about how do I really make this relevant? And relevance continues to be an important factor. So I would say overall, brands played it safe. Overall, there was a real lean in to nostalgia and into what I would call Americana. And some did it right and some didn't do it well. And then the last theme was brands, themes,

thinking about celebrity as a must-have. And I thought that was not every... The celebrity needs to make sense. And in some cases, there was an overuse of celebrity or there was an abuse of celebrity. And it just didn't make sense. I'm thinking, how are you going to get... Because I know what these celebrities cost.

And I'm like, how are you going to get the ROI on that cameo? Was that really worth it? Was that the best way to spend your marketing dollars? In some cases, the answer to that was no. Are there ones that come to mind that you felt like overpacked the celebrity quotient? Well, I think, you know, anyone where I'm like, why is this celebrity here? If your customers and your prospects are confused, right?

that's already a no. I can tell you who got it right. Hellman's did a really great job recreating that iconic scene from Harry Met Sally. That was clutch. This iconic scene...

is one that we all love and remember. And mayo, mayonnaise, showing up in this scene made complete sense. So talk about, that was, I think, a really good use of celebrity. And the Sidney Sweeney cameo, it was like that mic drop moment. Like, I'll have whatever she's having. You know, she's America's sweetheart.

of this modern day. And so to bring her in with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal was very well done. Helps make it relevant is what you're saying. Helps make it relevant. You could understand why, you know, Sidney was added to that conversation.

You know, for me, the Budweiser and Bud Light ad sort of perfectly reflected the moment. Bud Light, sort of red-blooded American vibe of suburbia over the grill, you know. And then like a Hallmark Channel emotion for Budweiser with the baby Clydesdale. It's like they were very easy to go down, right? I think Bud Light did a good job.

You know, I think they understand who their target audience is and they spoke to their target audience in a way that deeply resonated. I also, you know, I think that there's something powerful about what Budweiser was trying to do, right? And I think, you know, it sort of felt like that uplifting community gathering vibes that we all needed, you know? So that inspiring story of,

of a Kylesdale fool on a journey, right? To deliver a Budweiser keg. I thought that was classic. It was amusing. They understood their demographic. They had a clear message they were trying to deliver. And I think they delivered that well. Now you've used this expression, NBDB, never been done before. There wasn't a whole lot of that, except for things that made you go a little bit like...

Ew. Let us talk about MBDB. And for those of you that are just tuning in, this has never been done before, right? We like a good MBDB. And I thought a brand that actually did that was Rocket.

So Rocket had that wonderful ad that really talked about owning the dream, owning the American dream, owning the home. They took the time to tell the story in a way that was so powerful. And, you know, I was interesting because I was watching it live. And, you know, everybody from my father-in-law to my daughter were like, oh, we like this one.

And, you know, and every American can remember that song. I mean, Bob, I'm sure in a bar somewhere at 1 a.m. at some point or the other, you were singing about country roads taking you home. There's no video of that. You're neither going to confirm nor deny. But I thought that was, the ad was great. But what was especially awesome was to see that connected with the live experience of country roads playing in the stands of

Right. And having the fans in the stadium, that was marketing magic. Right. Because that was the ad. The extension was so real, so powerful, so wonderful. So that was an MBDB. I don't think I've seen any ads do that before where they connect what is happening.

happening, you know, on the screen to what is happening physically in the stadium in such a powerful, integrated way. So I thought Rocket did that. They certainly owned that MBDB category with that first of its kind integration.

So not the skin cowboy hat from Tubi. I didn't even know what was going on with that. You know, talk about an ad that was repulsive. I mean, that was when everyone was like, I'm going to go get some chips. Nobody wants to watch that, right? I thought

I thought that ad was pushing creative direction. That's what I meant of, because people were staying away from relevance, sometimes they turned up the dial on own ability or memorability in a way that didn't always work. And I think for that to be added,

They turned up the memorability dial a little too much that it didn't quite work. I want to ask you about the Nike ad, the Nike So Win ad with top female athletes with Kagan Clark and Jordan Childs and others. In some ways, it was like a throwback Nike ad to some of the things we'd seen from them before. So it wasn't really never been done before. But at the same time, I thought it was pretty darn effective. I think Nike was the winner of the night.

And I'll tell you why. They did an amazing job of being ownable. It was, like you said, it was an ownable Nike spot. You saw that spot and you immediately knew it was Nike because of the athlete presence, the visual aesthetic, the black and white aesthetic there.

and the message. It showed the power of purpose and performance. And I have to give Nike a lot of credit for this spot because in a year where a lot of brands were staying away from saying anything, Nike said something. They said something important. They said something that matters. And they said something that needed to be said.

And that was the power of women in sports and the importance of gender equity in sports. And I thought they said it really well. It wasn't preachy. It was powerful.

And so talk about being memorable and being relevant. And many of us can remember what was happening in the Olympics when Sha'Carri was running and she was ahead. And she looked to her left and she looked to her right. And that moment was a part of the narrative, right? Many of us remember the journeys that these women athletes have had. And to see them standing on business, standing on power, standing on strength, it was saying, look,

Come what may, women's sports is here to stay. And I love that. And, you know, just watching my daughter watch that spot and her face light up, it was a powerful moment. So I think Nike did that. And they were really the only brand that made a statement, right? You know, a lot of brands talked about unity and nostalgia, which I thought was a little bit overdone, to be honest, and not actually reflective of the state of the country. So it's felt a little forced.

But I thought Nike did a really good job of saying, hey, we're standing on business. We're standing on purpose. We're not cause led. So we're not jumping into a political conversation, but we're standing on what makes sense for our business. Our values remain unchanged.

I love how Dara gets right to the heart of the business and creative decisions that distinguish brands, whether that's Nike or Budweiser or Tubi. After the break, we dig into what choosing a particular celebrity says or doesn't say about your brand, plus the impressions left by OpenAI, Michelob Ultra, Dunkin', Jeep, and more. Stay with us.

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Before the break, Autodesk Chief Marketing Officer Dara Treseder talked about what makes a successful Super Bowl ad and why she thinks Nike won the night. Now Dara talks about the good and bad of celebrity endorsements, what Willem Dafoe has over David Beckham, and what successfully distinguished ChatGPT's ad from the pack. Let's jump back in.

I want to ask you a little bit more about celebrities. In a moment like this, were there kinds of celebrities that are more effective in this environment? Or is it more just about the relationship of that celebrity to the brand? And the person I think about this is Matthew McConaughey, who seems like he's sort of everywhere as a pitch man. But, like, why? I think...

Look, this is probably... I have no evidence that this happened. But I'm imagining Matthew McConaughey had a call with Snoop Dogg and was like, bro, you are everywhere. How do I get to be everywhere too? And he collected the baton and kept running.

So if there was a celebrity winner of the Super Bowl, it would be Matthew McConaughey. I think online everyone has been talking about the renaissance of Matthew McConaughey. I like to call it the McConaissance, if you will. So I think there was a McConaissance happening. And look, I think because, again, brands were playing it safe. Matthew McConaughey is one of those people that appeals to a wide audience.

you know, spectra of demographics. So I think for the brands that were playing it safe, sort of sticking to a Matthew McConaughey felt like, okay, he's relevant and interesting enough, but broad enough that he appeals to a wide array of folks. Now, is that effective?

That's the question, right? You know, I know we saw him in a Salesforce ad. We saw him in Uber Eats. Did it deliver on the message? Was it as memorable? I will say what I remembered more was that Matthew McConaughey was in the spots and that he was everywhere. So I think you have to think about that.

Now, the brands that got celebrity right was where there was a deep connection to the brand. Like Ben Affleck continuing to talk about Dunkin' Donuts makes sense. I was scanning through some of the best and worst quick lists that are already up online, USA Today, New York Times, Fast Company. And one of the ads that was showing up on all of them, which a little bit surprised me, was the Stella Artois ad with David Beckham and Matt Damon.

I thought that spot was good and speaking to a specific demographic. So this, I think brands decided, am I going to talk to everybody or am I going to talk to my people? And I thought that was one of the spots that was talking to my people, but welcoming more people into the conversation. Would I say it was great?

I don't think it was really memorable. I don't think it was really as relevant. So it will be interesting to see. I don't know that you're going to get, for example, that celebrity usage versus, you know, some of the other ones we've talked about. I don't know if you get that same

R or Y, right? That same multiplier effect, that same continued conversation for a significant period of time after the day after the Super Bowl, right? Okay, everyone's writing about it today. It's Monday. But is anyone going to be talking about it on Friday? I don't think so.

I will tell you another use of celebrity that I really liked was the Michelob Ultra because I thought that was really smart with Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara. You know, pickleball is having a moment in American culture. So I actually like that spot a lot because I thought this is a spot that is connecting what is happening in culture in a different way.

And it was also nice to see Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara kind of, you know, at the top of their game. And the spot, one of our Autodesk customers played a role in this, The Mill. So Willem Dafoe, Catherine O'Hara, the athletes, they were all in different places. And Autodesk Visual Effects Software, so Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Arnold were kind of used there.

to sort of help with telling that story. So I thought it was, it's a nice way also showing how technology and the magic behind the magic, which often doesn't get talked about, you know, in the ads is still playing a role. Technology is having a moment right now, right? Literally physically making people, connecting people together digitally and seeing that come into life in an ad was, was quite powerful. I'm curious. Yeah.

if you had any reactions to the open AI ad, we haven't had an AI have an ad before. Yeah.

OpenAI entered the chat at just the right time. Let's put it that way. I think the simplicity, the anonymity of their ad really reflected how dominant they are today. You know, I thought there was something cool about the pointillism and essentially how they intentionally enlisted human animators, right, to design the art that kept us guessing whose ad it was. Right? That ad itself, I thought,

I thought it perfectly embodied its message that AI amplifies human creativity and human ingenuity. There was no other ad like it. So in terms of memorability, in terms of being relevant to that intersection between humans and technology. And I think the final moment that Chad GPT appeared on the screen, it felt like a perfect mic drop.

You alluded to this a little bit earlier on, but I wanted to ask you about, you know, it's February's Black History Month. And I kept reflecting on how

white the ads were, like the celebrities and the feel, whereas the halftime show, which you referred to earlier, was like a celebration of being Black. And it's almost like they were for two different audiences. Isn't that interesting? It is Black History Month. Happy Black History Month. I think that Kendrick Lamar did a wonderful job

of reflecting on our history, helping us remember where we're coming from, but also reminding us of where we're going. His music is like poetry. It is verse-based.

The words are powerful. And some of it is, of course, tongue in cheek fun between him and him and Drake. But some of it really is speaking to the the black American experience. You know, we have had a challenging past. And even now, our struggles are not over. We are still very much in the middle of that struggle. And so I thought the halftime show really spoke to that.

And I think that a lot of brands were afraid to do anything that could be seen as making a political statement. And I think that is sad because Black Americans are part of America. Our Black history is part of American history.

And I don't think brands should be afraid to put Black people in their spot. They're not afraid to take Black people's money, right? In fact, they want us to purchase their products. I don't think that brands should be afraid of showcasing their diverse customer base in a spot. Now, I do think brands should be thoughtful about what statement, if any, they want to make. And we don't want to be cause-led. I've been saying this for a long time now.

We want to be purpose-led, right? Because when you're cause-led, you're just, you don't know what is important to you. And so you are just over here and over there and you're commenting on things that you have no business commenting on.

I always, if we're not doing something about it, if it's not core and fundamental to our business, we are not talking about this as a brand because it makes no sense for us to talk about it. But I do, I do hope that, you know, CMOs out there aren't afraid to, to, to have anybody, uh,

that is representative of their customer base in their spots, right? It is okay to have your spots reflect your customer base. In fact, it is advisable to have your spots reflect your customer base. Of course, you do need to pay attention and make sure that the message is going to resonate with the audience. The ad that I felt like sort of deftly navigated a line between each side of our political divide was,

What surprised me a little bit was Jeep.

It's like you see the car, you see the waving flags and soldiers with families, which, you know, makes sense for Jeep. But then you also have Harrison Ford doing this voiceover about our differences can be our strength, you know. And then they have sort of the funny reference to his name at the end. But it was kind of trying to appeal to whatever, wherever you were, you might feel like that ad was for you. That was the only commercial that my husband commented on.

And, you know, he's a Marine. So I'm always interested to hear his perspective. It was one of the few spots that did unity well, because I think it didn't fake it. You know, nobody likes inauthentic unity, right? Because inauthentic unity actually highlights our division. Let's be real. But I thought that spot did unity well because it really spoke to where we are. It allowed you to see yourself better.

in the spot. And it also, I think, made us just like reflect and think like, okay, there is so much more that unites us than divides us. That's just a fact, right? Our human experience, there's so much more we have in common, so much more we can lean into. And I think that spot gave us permission to do just that. And I think at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, what do I want to say? Who do I want to say it to?

And how long do I want to have them think on it? And I think the brands that answered those three questions well, got it right. And the ones that didn't, had a miss. Because this year, I think a lot of brands spent a lot of money and they're not necessarily going to get the ROI. Because when you play it safe,

And you blend. Like, you know, my creative agency, Giants, when they always say boring is bad for business. And it is true. No one remembers who you are. No one remembers what you did. No one remembers what you said. And so you have just spent millions, in some cases, tens of millions,

And you don't have anything to show for it. So I do think that the brands that asked the right questions, that answered it the right way, did a good job. I also want to give a shout out to the brands who maybe said, you know what, maybe this isn't the Super Bowl that I'm going to put my spot in. Because when I ask myself those three questions, the answer is not a Super Bowl spot. That's okay too.

But, you know, the Super Bowl is the big leagues, right? And so I also want to give credit to everybody who came because at the end of the day, you were in the arena. And whether or not you won, whether or not you lost, you were in the arena. And so hats off to you.

Well, this has been great. Always great talking to you. Thanks so much for doing it. Thank you so much. We are going to do this again. I love this. This is so fun. You have hot takes with Bob and Dara of what happened at the Super Bowl. You could tune in again.

The Super Bowl is such a high wire act for brands, the risks and ROI calculations of spending millions on a brief stretch of airtime. As Dara explained, some brands played it safe in terms of subject matter, but many of those overcompensated in creative ways, which was an unsuccessful way to distract from a lack of message.

Her distinction between being purpose-led versus cause-led really resonated with me. Brands shouldn't necessarily speak out on everything, but at the same time, a brand isn't effective if it doesn't stand for anything. That holds true not just at the Super Bowl, but all year long. To the Eagles, Jeep, Nike, and all the brands that managed to thread the needle at this year's big game, congratulations. And to the Chiefs and all the brands that didn't quite hit the mark, congratulations.

or didn't even try, well, better luck next year. I'm Bob Safian. Thanks for listening. The Lobatical is for any employees who have been with us for five years to take a vacation. They get a week of extra PTO. They get to pick anywhere in the world that they want to travel, and we allow that to happen for them.

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Rapid Response is a Wait What original. I'm Bob Safian. Our executive producer is Eve Troh. Our producer is Alex Morris. Assistant producer is Masha Makutonina. Mixing and mastering by Aaron Bastinelli. Theme music by Ryan Holiday. Our head of podcast is Lital Malad. For more, visit rapidresponcesshow.com.