The Super Bowl is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. In 2025, over 127 million Americans tuned in, which is enormous in the US. Over here in the UK, it hardly gets a mention on the news, but certainly from other parts of the world, it's headline-breaking. Squarespace has a long history of Super Bowl ads. This year, it took place in the Caesars Superdome, a gigantic, 73,000-person holding cauldron. With so many tuning in to watch, the advertising is big business. That's where Squarespace comes in; they had a 30-second prime spot on TV between breaks at the Super Bowl LiX.
Theme
The idea of the short ad is to ram home the message that every small business needs a website. Barry Keoghan rides a donkey through a past time, in the 1800s in Ireland. As he goes from village to village, he flings laptops with a Squarespace website ready to go and tailor-made for each small business he passes. On one laptop, it's for "Natural Dye Workshops", to a confused lady who is dying clothes. We didn't see them feature our coffee-themed template, but maybe that's next year... joke. Another laptop is launched through the window of a local pub, and on the device is a website for "Daly's Bar". The message is clear; they may be confused, but websites benefit all businesses.
The Squarespace brand is mentioned from the first second of the ad to the last. They make their 30 seconds count. It is common for many ads to be clever and reveal their brand in the final few seconds, but not this one. They have tried to get their brand across from the off.
Set in Ireland
The scene is set in Ireland, Keoghans' origin. The scene is reminiscent of the film The Banshees of Inisherin, in which he plays the supporting actor. It looks like Ireland, too, with the rolling hills and clifftops. It's a brilliant setting that works well for the 30-second ad.
Barry Keoghan
Barry has been launched into stardom by his film roles. One of the main being Dunkirk, a Christopher Nolan masterpiece. Keoghán is from a troubled background and has done well to overcome his struggles and become a well-known and respected actor. It's been recently announced that he will be one of the leading 4 in the Beatle series alongside Paul Mescal. That hits the screens in 2026.
Is it a good investment for Squarespace?
The ad cost $8m, yes, 8 million dollars, an eye-wracking amount of money, was it worth it for Squarespace? I don't know, and I don't have any inside information about the number of new subscribers, but let's do a little speculative math. They would need an increase of 13,300 new sign-ups to break even on the investment. I calculated that, on the basis of an average monthly subscriber, they would be paying $25. That's a figure between their most popular plan - Business - and Squarespace's lower-tier e-commerce plan. Let's say that the average customer churn is 24 months. (Churn is the amount of time an average customer stays a customer.) That totals up to $600 lifetime value of a customer. $8,000,000 divided by $600 equals 13,300, with a rounded number.
The figures I have calculated is my own speculation and pure speculation, at that. I really have no idea what the average customer pays or what the churn rate actually is. I would guess around that, but it is a guess. Going on those figures, that is quite a lot of new customers, though, but Squarespace are a clever bunch and I'm sure they have done their numbers.
There is also the brand equation, which is almost impossible to calculate. Someone might become a Squarespace customer 5 years down the line after seeing the Super Bowl ad, hearing from a friend years later that they used Squarespace and also clicking an ad when searching for "I need a website online". How on earth do you tell that the Super Bowl ad actually made them purchase? Almost impossible.
It will be fascinating to see the ads for next year's Super Bowl, but from an outside perspective, this one seems to have been very successful for Squarespace with a strong message throughout the ad.