Diabetes and weight management drugs dominated game-day NFL advertising during the regular season, with TV outcomes company EDO finding Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic led the pharma field. With Super Bowl LIX approaching, attention is turning to whether the industry will make a rare appearance on the big day.
Drugmakers have typically stayed on the sidelines as companies have jostled for the attention of Super Bowl viewers. Pfizer and Astellas ran ads about beating cancer and the hot flash menopause drug Veozah, respectively, last year. Beyond that, looking at ads that ran from 2020 to 2024, EDO listed Super Bowl TV spots from medtech companies Cue Health and Dexcom but no other pharma promotions.
The data suggest drugmakers that do choose to follow in those companies’ footsteps may connect well with viewers. Cue, Dexcom and Pfizer saw above-average engagement with their Super Bowl ads compared to those of other companies, according to EDO, and the data for the regular 2024-25 season offer encouragement to some brands.
Engagement is down 24% this year compared to the 2023-24 season, though that blockbuster period was something of an outlier, with EDO tracking a 149% jump in engagement in the most recent season compared to the 2022-23 period. Indeed, the data suggest levels of engagement remain high.
Some brands have comfortably outperformed the competition. Novo’s eight airings of Ozempic ads were 452% more effective than the average pharma NFL spot, according to EDO, and generated 136.8 million impressions. Wegovy, Ozempic’s sibling, racked up 145.9 million impressions and was 296% more effective than average.
Ozempic and Wegovy took the first and third spots, respectively, on EDO’s list of the top five pharma brands of the regular NFL season. The Novo drugs are sandwiched around Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, while Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid and Incyte’s dermatology drug Opzelura took fourth and fifth place, respectively. EDO said four of the top 10 pharma advertisers focused on diabetes and weight management.