Budweiser’s streak of Super Bowl ad dom­i­nance is thanks in large part to a pup­py that makes Amer­i­can con­sumers verklempt. And experts say mar­keters look­ing to emu­late the brand’s adver­tis­ing suc­cess should devel­op con­tent with relat­able themes and emo­tion­al trig­gers. And, like Bud­weis­er, this con­tent doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need an explic­it sales mes­sage as long as that con­tent is part of a longer play with oth­er mar­ket­ing ele­ments that work in uni­son.

Bud­weis­er clear­ly had anoth­er big hit this year with its Lost Dog spot, even though it was arguably a repack­aged ver­sion of its 2014 Super Bowl com­mer­cial. And, lucky for Bud­weis­er, con­sumers real­ly didn’t seem to care that they’d seen the dog + horse + per­il = viral video gold for­mu­la before and were eager to wel­come the brand’s pup­py back into their TVs and browsers again.

In fact, the Lost Dog spot was #1 in USA Today’s Ad Meter rank­ings of Super Bowl ads over­all with an aver­age rat­ing of 8.1 out of 10. And, to date, the spot has 24.5 mil­lion views on YouTube.

What’s more, per Viral Video Chart, Lost Dog is the #1 video in the last week and also has 2.3 mil­lion Face­book shares.

In addi­tion, YouTube com­ments like, “Just anoth­er rea­son to love Budweiser…this makes me teary-eyed and hap­py every time I see it,” and, “BEST COMMERCIAL EVER <3,” indi­cate con­sumers yet again feel an emo­tion­al con­nec­tion to the spot.

Even Inter­net domain reg­is­trar and web host­ing com­pa­ny GoDad­dy learned not to tan­gle with Budweiser’s pup­py. GoDad­dy pulled a Super Bowl spot pri­or to game day due to adverse reac­tion to it pok­ing fun of the beer brand’s 2014 hit.

And it’s not even clear that these dog lovers are beer drinkers. But, again, it doesn’t seem to mat­ter.

So why does Bud­weis­er go to the trou­ble of mak­ing con­sumers cry – even when that includes con­sumers who may nev­er pur­chase its prod­uct – and what can oth­er brands glean from this?

Greg Jar­boe, pres­i­dent of inter­net mar­ket­ing ser­vices firm SEO-PR, points out that Bud­weis­er ran two addi­tion­al spots dur­ing the game, Brewed the Hard Way and Real Life Pac­Man #Upfor­What­ev­er.

“Most oth­er adver­tis­ers ran one. So, Bud­weis­er ‘flood­ed the zone,’ as they say in foot­ball,” Jar­boe said.

In addi­tion, the 2015 pup­py spot builds on a sto­ry start­ed two years ago with Broth­er­hood and con­tin­ued last year with Pup­py Love, he said.

“If Hol­ly­wood has taught us any­thing, when you have a sto­ry and char­ac­ters that peo­ple love, it’s a pret­ty safe bet to cre­ate a sequel,” Jar­boe said.

And it’s those emo­tions that are a key part of the spots’ suc­cess. But if oth­er brands are look­ing to fol­low Budweiser’s lead and dri­ve video shar­ing of their own, they should make sure to hit what­ev­er emo­tion­al trig­gers they choose hard, Jar­boe says.

The for­mu­la for suc­cess also includes launch­ing the ad before the game to build dig­i­tal buzz and lay­er­ing on social moti­va­tions. And Budweiser’s top-per­form­ing Super Bowl ads from the last three years have done all of these things.

“So Bud­weis­er has fig­ured out the for­mu­la for suc­cess and is repeat­ing it year after year,” Jar­boe said.

Ian Chee, chief strat­e­gy offi­cer at dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency MRY, said that con­text is more impor­tant today than ever. And in the case of the Super Bowl when con­sumers are watch­ing the game with fam­i­ly and friends “it’s a light­heart­ed affair where peo­ple gath­er, joke and drink. In this con­text, ideas that will bring a smile to your face or a swath of nos­tal­gia work. It opens up the con­ver­sa­tion in the room and this often trans­lates to the con­ver­sa­tions online as well,” he said.

In addi­tion, Chee said themes like pup­pies and fam­i­ly bonds are ones many Amer­i­cans can relate to.

“Bud­weis­er pulled on these strings to build res­o­nance with their audi­ence and it’s worked,” he said. “It’s true that it’ll be dif­fi­cult to track the imme­di­ate sales impact, but brands, smart big brands, under­stand they are play­ing a long game. Last­ing brands are built over years, and a good invest­ment of love for the brand can help build that long-term res­o­nance.”

Dave Sur­gan, asso­ciate direc­tor of mobile and social plat­forms at ad agency R/GA, agrees that brands have a deci­sion to make when it comes to an event like the Super Bowl and the impact they want to make.

“Across all medi­ums and tech­nolo­gies, adding pup­pies, kit­tens or semi-naked peo­ple will get you atten­tion,” Sur­gan said. “Does this always help you rein­force a mes­sage that adds val­ue to your prod­uct? Prob­a­bly not. Does it grab some atten­tion for a moment? Almost always, yes. Brands need to fig­ure out if they are work­ing for quick atten­tion grabs for every cam­paign or some­thing that endures.”

How­ev­er, Chee also notes a brand’s entire mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy is not usu­al­ly a sin­gle ad. Rather, it includes a lot of dif­fer­ent ele­ments that work togeth­er to achieve larg­er goals.

In oth­er words, one asset doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need to do every­thing.

“The best mar­ket­ing usu­al­ly does one thing very well and then there’s a set of tools that does oth­er things like social engage­ment,” Chee said.

In a well-orches­trat­ed cam­paign, these ele­ments work togeth­er, he said.

Fur­ther, Bud­weis­er had the lux­u­ry of two Super Bowl spots – one that pulled at con­sumers’ heart­strings and one that was prod­uct-ori­ent­ed.

“One con­nects on the emo­tion­al lev­el and the oth­er is [about the prod­uct],” Chee said. “And, in fact, it was quite smart to do both.”

Bot­tom line: if noth­ing else, to play off of core human themes like the desire to be loved, Chee said.

“It’s like the whole idea of roman­tic come­dies. When you go to watch, you’re not watch­ing for the twist at the end when they don’t fall in love – you know these things are going to hap­pen,” Chee said. “Those things fol­low a cer­tain rhythm and there are new ways to tell it and nuances that make it bet­ter or worse, but, at its core, it plays off of sim­i­lar themes and, with the Super Bowl, it’s sim­i­lar themes, but exe­cut­ed well and at a high­er bud­get.”

What else do you think brands can learn from Bud­weis­er’s pup­py?