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Ad Meter 2022: Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage
Barbie’s dream house and Anna Kendrick are the focus of this loan provider’s commercial.
USA TODAY
Rocket Mortgage used a different star and far different approach to snatch the same honor in consecutive years — king of USA TODAY’s Ad Meter.
The mortgage and homebuying giant leaned on the lively charisma of Anna Kendrick to corral voters and claim the top spot for Super Bowl 56 with “Dream House,” in which Kendrick and a cadre of kids help Barbie settle on her forever home.
The 60-second spot — an eight-figure investment with ad rates going for $6.5 million for 30 seconds — scored a 6.82 rating among voters, edging out Amazon’s “Mind Reader,” which registered a 6.78. Ad Meter, in its 34th year, ranks commercials by consumer rating with panelists scoring each ad on a 1-to-10 scale.
The results are eerily similar to 2021, in which Rocket Mortgage prevailed on the strength of comedian Tracy Morgan and Los Angeles Chargers strongman Joey Bosa in “Certain is Better,” which claimed the top two spots at 7.38 and 7.30, with Amazon again the next to break through at 6.75.
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Recap of best 2021 Super Bowl commercials: Amazon Alexa, Rocket Mortgage
Ad Meter’s top three commercials pulled the punches, including Michael B. Jordan voicing Amazon Alexa and Tracy Morgan giving homebuying advice.
Ralphie Aversa, USA TODAY
This time, under the rebranded Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage, it was Kendrick, star of the “Pitch Perfect” musical comedy trilogy and other merry cinematic romps, lending her charms and social media clout to the cause.
In a rare moment of brand and celebrity synergy, Kendrick tweeted to her 7 million followers an appeal to vote in the contest, culminating a weeklong campaign during which Rocket did not release the entire ad — as more than three-fourths of Super Bowl advertisers do these days — but Kendrick teased on her social channels.
The spot juxtaposes Kendrick, the children and Barbie against the grim modern realities of homebuying, from predatory lenders to speculators flush with cash offers and house-flippers inflating the market. While it’s not immediately clear how Rocket eradicates the evils of this ecosystem in which it operates, Super Bowl viewers were at least temporarily distracted from a worsening national housing crisis when Barbie lands her Malibu pad. And Rocket clinched its third top-five finish in as many years.
The top five are emblematic of recent and longstanding trends in Super Bowl commercials: Highly competitive Rocket and Amazon at the top, followed by Doritos/Cheetos Flamin’ Hot, which utilized a celebrity (Megan Thee Stallion), adorable animals and a throwback top 40 hit (Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”) to enthrall viewers.
Kia went the adorable (animated) dog route to finish fourth with “RoboDog,” while Toyota gleaned significant inspiration with “Brothers,” the tale of Canadian Paralympic skier Brian McKeever and brother Robin.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency and sports gambling both made their major debuts on the Super Bowl stage and weren’t warmly received. Larry David managed to pull FTX (5.81) to a 16th-place finish, the lone crypto/gambling brand to finish in the upper half of the 64 rated ads. DraftKings topped the bottom five with a 4.29.
And finishing in the basement was Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange that used its 60 seconds to float a QR code around the screen, daring its (largely confused) viewers to scan through to its site.
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