EDO: NFL ‘Unmatched’ in Driving Consumer Engagement

NFL advertising is continuing to drive meaningful results for companies. 

According to TV outcomes company EDO’s recently released NFL TV Outcomes Report, which analyses every national TV ad that aired across the 2025-26 NFL season, the NFL remains unmatched on TV in driving consumer engagement. 

This, the company says, can be seen through measurable actions such as branded searches and site visits.

“Today's audiences have more choices than ever, yet premium content continues to command engagement at an unmatched scale,” Jim Minnich, SVP, Revenue and Yield Management of Disney Advertising, said in his introductory letter to the report. 

“Within that landscape, the NFL remains TV’s most-watched programming event – and continues to prove that the biggest audiences also drive meaningful consumer action long after the final whistle.

“The insights in EDO’s 2026 NFL TV Outcomes Report reinforce what we see across premium television every year: when brands align with the moments audiences value most, it drives stronger engagement and measurable business outcomes.”

Aligning with the NFL’s biggest moments

According to EDO, brands that are able to align with the NFL’s biggest moments – such as the Super Bowl – can drive stronger engagement and measurable business outcomes. 

In fact, the report found that a single NFL advertisement can deliver the impact of approximately 73 primetime broadcast and cable spots – up 15% from the 2024-2025 season. 

The average Super Bowl spot, meanwhile, was able to match the impact of 1,455 primetime ads. 

AI-themed advertisements from companies such as Claude, Microsoft and IBM had a particularly strong audience impact – with Microsoft’s ad highlighting Copilot’s AI-powered animation capabilities driving 667% more engagement than the average regular-season ad overall. 

“In a premium TV environment where the competition is as fierce during the ad breaks as it is on the field, the NFL remains the ultimate proving ground for driving results,” says Kevin Krim, President and CEO of EDO. “EDO TV outcomes make the scoreboard clearer than ever – knowing which brands are ahead of the pack and who’s playing catch-up. Outcomes measurement only means something for brands when they are immediate — for every brand, every competitor, every creative — and on the right benchmark. ”

Pharmaceutical advertising growth

EDO’s data finds that three out of the top five regular season advertisers were pharmaceutical brands.

Often running 60-second spots, brands in this category were 95% more effective during regular-season NFL games than they were during primetime broadcast and cable. 

Ads such as this can have a lasting impact when done right – for instance, Novartis’s ‘Relax your Tight End’ campaign, officially broadcast at the Super Bowl LX in 2026 and winner of the Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix.

“The phrase 'clenching your tight end' came up in some of the research, and it just naturally led to the execution,” Gail Horwood, Chief Marketing Officer of Novartis, said of the campaign.

Starring tight ends Rob Gronkowski, Tony Gonzalez and George Kittle, as well as former Super Bowl-winning coach and prostate-cancer survivor Bruce Adams, the campaign was created to encourage men to get prostate cancer screenings.

What are EDO’s key partnerships?

• NBCUniversal: EDO’s ad-driven TV outcomes data feeds directly into NBCUniversal’s Performance Insights Hub (PIH) for automated performance reporting for all advertisers, enabling ongoing in-flight measurement, as well as potential cross-platform optimisation.
• Paramount Global: EDO’s outcomes measurement is made available to agencies and advertisers through Paramount Global’s InView platform, with EDO data soon expanding to all advertisers following the successful roll-out of select categories. The integration provides transparent, in-flight performance insights across Paramount’s linear and streaming inventory, allowing the company to assess and optimise impact in real time.
• Nielsen: This ground-breaking integration combines Nielsen’s currency-grade TV audience measurement, with EDO's predictive TV outcomes metrics across linear and streaming ads. This allows companies to simplify workflows and start assessing the full business value of every impression or GRP.
• Disney Advertising: Disney Advertising and EDO entered into a premiere agreement to apply the company’s engagement metrics to Disney’s streaming footprint, starting with Hulu. As a result, advertisers can gain greater insight on how Disney’s premium content translates into consumer engagement and performance.