If you’re an advertiser looking for scale, February was your moment. NBC hosted two of the year’s biggest tentpole events, the Super Bowl and the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, both delivering massive cross-platform audiences across linear and streaming. The Winter Games, in particular, offered a rare combination of primetime reach and live daytime viewing, creating extended windows for brands to connect with viewers. High-stakes moments drove high viewership, such as the Men’s gold medal hockey match between Team USA and Team Canada, AdImpact tracked a national average audience of 24.6M viewers.
AdImpact tracked more than 584K broadcast airings across Olympic programming, representing 10K+ unique advertisers and over 26K broadcast and CTV creatives. From auto makers and legal services to alcohol, fast food, and telecom, brands leaned into the Games to capture attention at scale.
Here’s what the ad data reveals about who advertised, and how they approached the Olympic moment:
Olympics Advertising Recapped
The advertising categories that aired the most broadcast airings targeting Olympic programming were auto makers, legal services, telecom, alcohol, and fast food. This represents a slight shift in the top categories across broadcast targeting all programs during the Olympics time period, which were legal services, household, home improvement, auto makers, and fast food. Across the board, the top advertisers by broadcast airings were Visa, Toyota, Michelob, Honda, and Xfinity. Just outside the top five was TurboTax, which strategically leveraged the Olympics during peak tax season to remind the audience to use their platform to file their taxes. Across CTV impressions, the top advertisers were Progressive, Nissan, Toyota, Audi, and State Farm. This ad by Norwegian Cruise Lines generated over 712M broadcast and CTV impressions across Olympic programming.
Anheuser-Busch’s “Golden Moment”
Anheuser-Busch has long owned the Super Bowl spotlight. This year was no exception, with Budweiser (and its iconic Clydesdales), Bud Light, and Michelob Ultra all making major national pushes during the Big Game. Michelob Ultra extended that momentum into the Winter Olympics, serving as the official beer sponsor of Team USA. Ricardo Marques, SVP of Marketing for Michelob Ultra, described the Super Bowl and Olympic efforts as a single, cohesive campaign “celebrating America’s competitive spirit.”
Michelob Ultra was not only the most heavily advertised Anheuser-Busch brand during Olympic programming — it was the most advertised beer of the Games overall. The brand aired numerous Olympic-themed spots, highlighting events such as skiing, curling, bobsledding, and hockey. Michelob Ultra also spotlighted its non-alcoholic Michelob Ultra Zero with a creative that leaned into the shared grind between athletes and fans: “While our nation's best are giving their blood, sweat, and tears in Milan. We'll be sweating right along with them. Michelob Ultra Zero Superior, it's brewed here.”
Outside of Michelob Ultra, the other most advertised alcoholic beverages during the Games were Bud Light, Pacifico, Peroni Italia, Traveler Whiskey, and Miller. Peroni Italia, in particular, leaned into the Olympic moment. During the Games, it ranked fourth among the most-advertised beers on broadcast. Strip out its Olympic-targeted airings, however, and the brand falls to 112th among beers on broadcast this year, highlighting just how concentrated its Olympic strategy was.
Over the course of the Games, Peroni aired two Winter Olympics–themed spots, each running more than 1,000 times, underscoring a deliberate, event-driven advertising push.
Let’s Go Somewhere Warm
As snow and freezing temperatures blanketed much of the United States, travel advertisers took advantage of an audience trying to stay warm at home while watching the Winter Olympics, dreaming of a warmer destination. Cruise lines led the category, accounting for 49% of all travel and hospitality airings targeting Olympic programming. Among them, Viking Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and American Cruise Lines were the most heavily advertised during the Games.
Airlines were more selective. Delta Air Lines, as the official airline of Team USA, was the most advertised airline during the Games, with 2.6K airings. Their most aired spot features clips of athletes ice skating, skiing and snowboarding. They were the only airline with more than 300 broadcast airings targeting Olympics programming.
Domestic tourism also made a push, with destinations such as San Diego, Orlando, San Francisco, and Humboldt county promoting travel during the Games. Internationally, advertisers spotlighted destinations including Ireland and Jamaica. On the booking side, Airbnb, Sunshine Tours, and Vrbo ranked among the top travel reservation advertisers during Olympic programming.
Regional Advertisers Go For Gold
The Winter Olympics also created a major opportunity for local advertisers to connect with viewers in their home markets. Regional fast food chains and grocery brands leaned into the moment, with spots from Publix, Zaxby’s, Culver’s, and In-N-Out Burger airing during Olympic coverage.
In the New York City market, local broadcast analysis shows that prominent regional law firms, including Cellino Law, Gorayeb & Associates, Harris, Keenan & Goldfarb, among others, ran ads during the Games, underscoring how tentpole events can serve as high-impact windows for regional advertisers. For more insights on legal services advertising trends, both nationally and at the local level, explore our latest report.
From global brands like Anheuser-Busch and Toyota to hyper-local law firms and regional restaurants, advertisers across categories leveraged the Games as a high-impact window to break through. Some, like Michelob Ultra and Peroni, built highly concentrated, event-specific strategies catering specifically to the Olympics audience.
Whether through broadcast dominance or CTV precision, the data shows one clear takeaway: in a fragmented media environment, tentpole events still offer rare moments of collective attention — and advertisers are willing to invest heavily to capture it.
