Agencies Missing Out on Half of Super Bowl Ad Inventory by Over Blocking

Mantis, a leading brand safety, suitability, and contextual advertising solutions provider for publishers and advertisers, has released data showing that brands relying on outdated keyword blocklists are missing out on nearly half of all Super Bowl-related content due to overblocking by agency keyword lists.

According to findings from Mantis’ network of publishers, 47% of Super Bowl content was incorrectly blocked by agencies. In stark contrast, when analysed using Mantis’ AI-powered natural language understanding (NLU) and contextual targeting solutions, only 4% of articles were deemed truly unsafe.

The analysis of 416 Super Bowl-related articles published between December 29th, 2024, and January 28th, 2025, revealed that keywords such as ‘victims’, ‘injuries’, ‘wounds’, and ‘incident’ were frequently flagged by standard agency blocklists. While these terms may indicate sensitive content in some contexts, in sports coverage, they are often used to describe standard gameplay, blocking brands from reaching highly engaged and relevant audiences around one of the biggest sporting events of the year.

“With the Super Bowl rapidly growing in popularity here in the UK, with viewership hitting 3.4 million unique viewers across Sky Sports and ITV last year, it’s disappointing to see agencies continue to block brands from reaching engaged audiences,” said Fiona Salmon, managing director at Mantis. “These blunt tools are costing publishers and advertisers valuable opportunities, and it's time for disruptors in the industry to ensure perfectly brand-safe and suitable content isn’t being sidelined.”