The two best commercials of 2021 have made their way to the top with music. The imaginative marketing skills of American restaurant chain Applebee’s have turned a humble bar and restaurant into a new internet phenomenon. The catchy commercial uses Walker Hayes’ song “Fancy Like,” referencing the restaurant and its once-famous Oreo Shake, which had been removed from the menu at the time.
Thanks to a clever collaboration between the db telegram chain and the country singer, the shake is now back on the Applebee's menu, and Hayes has a No. 1 song. Capitalizing on the viral content, it turns out everyone wants to be “as fancy as Applebee's on a romantic date night,” as searches for the restaurant jumped from under 1,000 to over 110,000 when the commercial and hit song were officially released in August 2021.
In second place is a dancing commercial for delivery service Grubhub , which surpassed its monthly average by 225% in January 2021.
Other notable mentions: Growing in popularity thanks to the 2021 Super Bowl Jeep , which featured superstar Bruce Springsteen, and Cheetos , which used star power Mila Kunis to drive searches.
The best e-commerce sites of 2021
According to Semrush research, technology and global markets continued to dominate the e-commerce space this year. Amazon cemented its position as a true e-commerce giant with over 3.3 billion visits on average each month. That's over 2 billion more visits, on average, than second-place eBay .
Interestingly, the top 10 was rounded out by several international sellers, including Japanese cashback site Rakuten , Chinese electronics marketplace AliExpress , and Swedish furniture giant Ikea .
Amazon and eBay received more average monthly visits than all 10 other websites combined.