134: Dissecting ad land’s WORST Super Bowl in years with Andrew Tindall of System1

This week, we posed as a wide receiver to catch ad land’s premier Super Bowl pundit, Andrew Tindall, to tell us which of this year’s cohort of cost-the-earth commercials were MVPs…and which fumbled the ball.   

A man who hadn’t slept in days, we snared Andrew straight from System1’s Super Bowl “war room”. After spending the past week testing the ads our industry can’t help but get sweaty about year on year, he’s here to tell us what “won” the Super Bowl and why. 

An award-winning marketer with a commercial background at some top notch FMCGs, Andrew leads System1's global partnership strategy and growth, seeking out the world’s best ads and why they work to unlock the potential of their world-leading effectiveness database.

He talks to us on Young Apprentice being a way of "getting out of Huddersfield'', studying medicine for 3 years, wanting to work in alcohol, how System1 predicts creative potential and effectiveness, his mentor, colleague and friend Orlando Wood, why effectiveness is relative; outperform your category, the hierarchy of evidence, the brilliant Jenni Romaniuk, creativity as the UK’s greatest export, and lots more. Plus, of course, the Super Bowl winners and losers, including Michelob Ultra, Messi, using celebs, mayo cat, T-Mobile and Pfizer. 

Touch down on the play button. You won’t be disappointed. 

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Follow Andrew on LinkedIn 
Find out more about System1 and their ad effectiveness predictors 
The only four slides you need for Super Bowl 2024 ad insights from System1
Here’s Andrew’s Super Bowl piece in The Drum 
And his personal favourite Super Bowl ad of 2024, Foot Washing
Plus Mr P by Pringles 
And if you haven’t seen them, watch 2024’s top scoring Super Bowl ads here: 
Dunkin’ Donuts, Hellmann’s, Reese’s, Oreo, State Farm, Popeyes, T-Mobile, NFL, Michelob ULTRA, Booking.com, and Budweiser.

Timestamps
(01:50) - Quick fire questions
(03:45) - First jobs, BBC’s Young Apprentice, and going from med school to marketing
(07:40) - How he ended up testing marketing effectiveness at System1 
(13:12) - How System1 predicts creative potential and effectiveness
(17:50) - Which ads “won” the Super Bowl?
(21:15) - What Michelob ULTRA did right 
(27:14) - His favourite Super Bowl ad of 2024 (and it’s one no one is talking about)
(30:45) - Efficiency and effectiveness 
(36:35) - Listener questions 
(42:00) - What US marketers can lea