Google Trends expert Christina Basilio joins Mason Paine to break down the biggest Super Bowl 60 search trends. From real-time spikes around halftime performances and player highlights, to the commercials everyone couldn’t stop googling, Christina Basilio shares an insider look at what captivated audiences during the big game.
Episode Highlights: Halftime Show Surprises: Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, and Celebrity Cameos
0:25 – Christina Basilio reveals the top searched players during Super Bowl 60, noting that Kenneth Walker III, Seahawks running back and game MVP, generated significant interest among viewers.
1:00 – Christina Basilio discusses the commercials that captured the most attention, with MrBeast’s Salesforce spot, Goodwill Dunkin’, and Lay’s Super Bowl ads standing out as top trending searches.
2:12 – Food trends take center stage as Christina Basilio shares that chili and goulash were the most searched recipes before the game, and interest in air frying and quick appetizers surged right before kickoff.
3:11 – The halftime show sparks a spike in searches, with Christina Basilio noting that Bad Bunny’s performance peaked search interest, especially around his guest stars Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
6:19 – Christina Basilio explains that, despite Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s absence, searches around Patriots fans focused on team basics, backup quarterbacks, and memorabilia, showing continued curiosity for the team’s evolving identity.
Super Bowl 60 Trends Transcript
Announcer – 0:00: Mason Vera Paine.
Mason Paine – 0:01: People were not just watching Super Bowl 60, they were searching in real time for the moments that mattered most, from the halftime music, big plays, and commercials. Joining me to break down some of the top search trends is Google Trends expert Christina Basilio. Thanks for joining me, Christina.
Christina Basilio – 0:17: So happy to be here.
Mason Paine – 0:18: So Super Bowl 60, now I’m sure there were tons of search trends, but which one stood out for you?
Christina Basilio – 0:25: So every year, the Super Bowl is the ultimate national conversation. People turn to Google in the moment with their biggest questions, and we track the entire conversation from the field to the commercials. So it should be no surprise that people were really interested in the players. So some of our top searched players during the game were Drake Maye, the New England quarterback, Sam Darnold, the Seahawks quarterback. But then we also saw Kenneth Walker III, who was not only a Seahawks running back but also the game MVP, become one of our top searched players.
Mason Paine – 0:54: When it comes to other searches, I’m curious, was any of the commercials—what were those trending at all?
Christina Basilio – 1:00: Yeah, so the commercials are always so interesting and fun and we always see people get really involved. So some of our top trending commercials that were searched during the game were, of course, MrBeast and his Salesforce commercial where he was promising to give away $1 million. But a couple of other ones that caught people’s eyes were the Goodwill Dunkin’ piece and the Lay’s Super Bowl. It seems like a couple of those commercials that pulled on those heartstrings definitely caught some attention.
Mason Paine – 1:25: I don’t know about you, but I really like the Liquid IV one with the singing toilets. That was very juvenile, but I enjoyed it.
Christina Basilio – 1:31: Yes, I know. It was so cute. And the one with like—there’s all the Backstreet Boys, right? So the Coinbase having the karaoke type vibe, that was really cute. Anything that makes me giggle is always a good time.
Mason Paine – 1:43: Yeah, the Goodwill Dunkin’ one, I’m not sure I enjoyed that because it had that anti-aging thing. And that kind of put me through a loop because I’m like, isn’t that the Fonz? Like, who are they playing?
Christina Basilio – 1:55: So true. It’s like they brought us all back in with the nostalgia, seeing all those characters from like Family Matters and all those different people, those people that we know. So it was definitely an interesting choice.
Mason Paine – 2:06: I’m a little curious. I’m usually really huge on food. Was there any food that was trending this year?
Christina Basilio – 2:12: Okay, so food is always such a big undertaking. So before the Super Bowl, we saw that chili was the top trending recipe along with the Patriots, and goulash was the top trending recipe along with the Seahawks. Another thing that really stood out to me was there was a search interest in how to air fry. It was at an all-time high before the Super Bowl. And things like air fry zucchini chips were top trending food searches. But once the game started, or right before the game started, we saw things like quick and easy appetizers and last minute Super Bowl meals being searched heavily.
Mason Paine – 2:46: Wow. I am so shocked about the air fry. But then, you know, super fast and easy, I could see it going hand in hand, right?
Christina Basilio – 2:54: For sure. I mean, I love my air fryer and just getting able to put something in there for 10 minutes. It’s such an easy win.
Mason Paine – 3:00: It really is. You’re so right about that. I do that with chicken wings all the time. I’m just like, throw it in the air fryer, right? Okay. So when it comes to the halftime, was there anything that was like trending that was cool?
Christina Basilio – 3:11: Oh, the halftime. It was such a spectacle, wasn’t it? Search interest for Bad Bunny was at an all-time high during the halftime show. And interest in him really peaked. We had questions coming up like, what did the football say that Bad Bunny was holding? Which it was Together We Are America. Who sang with Bad Bunny? Of course, that was Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. And how many people watched the halftime show? Which they expected was about 125 million. But the other things that really stuck out to me was, so this is where the celebrity searches came in. So top search was blank at the Super Bowl.
Christina Basilio – 3:47: Was trending. All the names that popped up were Cardi B, Lady Gaga, Pedro Pascal, and Jessica Alba, all part of Bad Bunny’s halftime performance.
Mason Paine – 3:57: Wow. You know, one of the things I saw more on Reddit was like people were kind of shocked that Lady Gaga was his guest and nobody who was on his album was his guest. And I was like, did people forget he’s a huge Lady Gaga fan? Like, this dude wears her merch all the time.
Christina Basilio – 4:15: 100%. That’s exactly what I thought when I saw it. It’s just like he had the opportunity to perform with one of his icons, and now he can say, I’ve gotten to perform with Lady Gaga. The fans who know, know.
Mason Paine – 4:28: Exactly, exactly. And I think like if I was in his position, absolutely, I would be putting everybody—my whole dream team is on the stage, right?
Christina Basilio – 4:37: For sure.
Mason Paine – 4:38: I do—I am a little curious though, how come it didn’t trend that Bad Bunny—this is his second time appearing at the Super Bowl. I was shocked a lot of people didn’t know that one. It wasn’t searched at all.
Christina Basilio – 4:50: Oh, that is really interesting. It wasn’t something that broke out or became top trending. I think maybe it was the timing because when we look at other queries that popped up around Bad Bunny, it was Bad Bunny Grammys or Bad Bunny lyrics as well as Puerto Rico. So I think because he had just won that Album of the Year, people were really interested in the recency. And the fact that he’s already performed or been at the Super Bowl wasn’t top of mind. In mind for people.
Mason Paine – 5:17: That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, you’re right. And it was 2020 when he last performed as a guest, and that was a while ago, and nobody really knew about him back then. So, but I just think like it’s really interesting that this is the second time, which puts him into a very unique category that most people don’t get into. And I thought that was really cool.
Christina Basilio – 5:37: That is a cool search, but I don’t know if you’re—there may have been some more people searching for it. If you go to trends.google.com, you can always look up your own trends to see is this something that was top of mind. So maybe it didn’t peak or like become a breakout search, but it doesn’t mean that everybody was talking about it. But the other thing, Mason, it just means that you are above the curve. You know what’s going on on the social pulse. And so maybe we should have you looking into some of these social trends in the future.
Mason Paine – 6:04: Right, okay. So here’s another one. How did—I know Patriots, this is the first time they’re there without Tom Brady. And without their coach Belichick. So without those two stars, I’m surprised that those two weren’t trending as well.
Christina Basilio – 6:19: Yeah, so it is really interesting whenever you have these tangential people or, or moments that come to these big moments. And again, like I said, it’s not like they maybe weren’t trending or of interest because, you know, Tom Brady was at the Super Bowl. He was a part of the initial walkout with Green Day. But what we’re seeing is when people were looking at things for like the Patriots and what they were interested in, it was very rudimentary. We actually have people looking in like, what are the Patriots’ colors? I mentioned like the food with like the chili that was popping up. And then we had a lot of interest in like quarterback backup when it came to like the Patriots that reached an all-time high. And then things like the merch and memorabilia. So I do anticipate probably looking up that legacy quarterback jersey for Tom Brady was peaking when people were looking at jerseys.
Mason Paine – 7:07: Hmm, okay, cool. Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining me. I know you’ve already said it, but just to reiterate, where can people find more information about all the things we talked about?
Christina Basilio – 7:17: I have two places to point folks. One, if you just wanna dive all into these trends, head over to trends.google.com. You can learn more about this or any topic that interests you. Second, if you’re interested in catching up on any of the ads that you missed, I know we only touched on a few, head over to YouTube Ad Blitz. We have all the ads that were posted for the Super Bowl, and you can decide which one was your favorite there.
Announcer – 7:41: This has been the Mason Vera Paine Show. Thanks for listening.
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