TV ADVERTISING

QSR Brands Love NBA Ads Because They Work

John Cassillo

Jul 1, 2025 • 1 min read

Did you feel like you saw a lot of quick serve (QSR) ads during this year's NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals? That's by design. QSR brands flock to NBA games – and the playoffs, in particular – because the spots work in terms of reaching their core audience, as advanced audiences data from iSpot reveals in this new Q2 sports report.

During this year’s playoffs, NBA games reached 44.9% of QSR visitors — most of any program on TV in that time (among the top 50 networks).
Not only was that figure No. 1 among all programs, it was also significantly higher than No. 2: ABC World News Tonight at 30.5%.
The very high figure explains why there were so many QSR ads during this year’s NBA Playoffs; the industry accounted for 12.0% of all household TV ad impressions during live NBA Playoff games. That was well above automakers at No. 2 (9.15%).
During the NBA Finals, in particular, five of the top 10 brand or movie studio advertisers—by reach—were QSR brands.

Get in the know about playoff advertising, and the metrics every brand needs to be looking at before (and after) buying inventory. Download iSpot's new transparency report today.