The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles face off on February 9, 2025 (6:30 p.m. ET on Fox, if it’s not in your calendar already). To get 30 seconds of advert time throughout the large recreation, manufacturers coughed up a cool $7 – $8 million per spot.
If that’s not within the finances, listed here are eight Tremendous Bowl advert options that may value you numerous much less.
Under, I’ve acquired just a few examples of massive manufacturers with notably artistic options to Tremendous Bowl advertisements, plus suggestions from a PR professional on utilizing Tremendous Bowl advertising methods in your personal <$7 mil campaigns.
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What Large Manufacturers Do As an alternative of Shopping for Tremendous Bowl Advertisements
In 2021, no less than 10 large manufacturers — Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi amongst them — sat out Tremendous Bowl LV and directed their funds elsewhere. Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser’s father or mother firm, donated cash towards COVID vaccine efforts.
Right here’s how two manufacturers will probably be celebrating this 12 months’s large recreation with out an official advert spot, an honorable point out, and one iconic different advert:
Perdue Hen: Wingin’ It
On February 9, Perdue will associate with actor/singer/comic Wayne Brady for a non-Tremendous Bowl Tremendous Bowl advert. Quite than shopping for a $7 million advert spot, Perdue will function Brady on Instagram Reside all through the sport — count on skits, Q&As, and different comedic bits.
Captain Morgan: Rum Avenue
Tremendous Bowl LIX will probably be hosted by Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, well-known for its French Quarter, Mardi Gras celebrations, and Bourbon Avenue.
Besides that this 12 months, Captain Morgan is popping bourbon into rum with its Rum Avenue activation. The reside occasion is accompanied by interactive on-line treasure hunts, weekly prizes main as much as the sport, and at-home cocktail recipes.
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Jenna Guarneri, creator of the bestselling ebook You Want PR and the founder and CEO of JMG Public Relations, tells me that in-person occasions like this are one of many greatest rising developments she’s seeing. It might look like a easy concept, she says, however “it doesn’t actually get outdated. You’re connecting together with your core — or potential core — buyer in actual life. Which is fairly superb.”
Captain Morgan and different manufacturers which can be leveraging the historical past and lore of New Orleans are “producing buzz inside the area people the place the Tremendous Bowl is occurring,” Guarneri says. “However you are able to do that wherever you might be, as a result of individuals are watching all over the place within the U.S.”
Duolingo
We’re calling this an honorable point out since Duolingo’s 2024 Tremendous Bowl marketing campaign started with an official advert — however one which was solely 5 seconds lengthy.
The actual marketing campaign got here within the type of coordinated push notifications despatched instantly after the advert aired that reminded learners to follow.
Duolingo referred to as it a technical danger: “Our groups had by no means tried a coordinated push marketing campaign at this scale, and we didn’t know if it was even technically attainable to ship a push notification to 4 million learners in 5 seconds with out crashing our app.”
It was, and so they did. It’s value noting that the owl app solely took the chance as a result of it had finished loads of social listening and different market analysis to determine what would resonate with its viewers.
Skittles: The Musical
Again in 2018, Skittles determined it did not need to shell out $5.2 million for a Tremendous Bowl advert. So it took that cash and created a full-length Broadway musical as an alternative (as you do).
Skittles’ intelligent anti-marketing stunt could have woke up your inside theater child, nevertheless it was nonetheless fairly costly. And, as a small- to medium-sized enterprise marketer, you doubtless cannot afford a Broadway manufacturing.
So, what do you do if you do not have thousands and thousands in your finances just like the manufacturers above?
Under, I‘ll record eight promoting methods that manufacturers use throughout the Tremendous Bowl. For every, I’ll stroll you thru how one can benefit from every on a a lot smaller scale whereas nonetheless successfully gaining model consciousness.
8 Reasonably priced Advertising Alternate options to Tremendous Bowl Promoting
1. Purchase video advert area on social platforms.
As a small enterprise marketer, you need not pay for a high-priced televised advert slot to get seen by the appropriate audiences — social media performs a predictably enormous position in promoting. Shopping for in-stream advertisements can attain a extremely audience:
If you are going to buy a extra budget-friendly skippable advert placement, you’re competing with the attract of the “Skip Advert” button, so that you’ll have only one or two seconds to get your viewers’s consideration. Right here’s a intelligent strategy to that from Burger King:
With social media presenting an more and more fragmented panorama, Guarneri says to diversify — “you don’t need to put all of your eggs in a single basket, like on TikTok, after which the platform disappears — alongside together with your viewers.”
Twitter was once a first-rate spot for Tremendous Bowl-adjacent advertisements, with its personal Model Bowl roundup of finest model tweets. However because it remodeled from Twitter to X, advertisers are spending considerably much less cash there — 50% much less, in keeping with some projections — as X customers scatter to different platforms like Threads and Bluesky.
And in 2023 — the final time the Chiefs and Eagles performed for the Lombardi — AdWeek famous that manufacturers have been ditching X and placing that cash into different social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
That doesn’t imply you might want to sink a ton of cash into each single social platform. Guarneri says to “decide the issues you could deal with and do it in prime quality. So perhaps it‘s not six issues —perhaps it’s two. However that method you are catching individuals in numerous alternative ways.”
Think about using different strategies to attract consideration, reminiscent of presenting a relatable ache level, providing a worth proposition, or putting viewers into an action-filled scene when the video begins enjoying.
Should you want extra inspiration, right here’s some fan-favorite advertisements (and a few advertising classes) from Tremendous Bowl 2024.
2. Host a reside occasion.
Guarneri says that “model consciousness will be such a excessive value and high-dollar entry level, however there’s methods to get artistic about it,” notably round such a cultural touchpoint just like the Tremendous Bowl.
You possibly can draw inspiration by the big-brand activations, she says, “by creating small in -person occasions and drawing individuals in to have fun this [cultural event].”
“You are able to do initiatives, whether or not large or small, in your hometown. You might create some form of culinary expertise that‘s tied to NOLA — you don’t should reside in NOLA to do this.”
A beignet-driven advertising technique? I’m in.
3. Dive deeper with a video narrative.
Tremendous Bowl advertisements usually really feel like miniature motion pictures. Quite than establishing a ache level and providing a product-based answer, they usually inform wealthy tales.
Take Clio Corridor of Fame and Cannes Lions winner “1984.” Directed by Ridley Scott for Apple, the advert aired throughout Tremendous Bowl XIII, when Apple was extra underdog than tech gargantuan, and IBM dominated the PC world.
On the finish of the business, a narrator broadcasts, “On January twenty fourth, 1984, Apple will introduce Macintosh. And you will see why 1984 will not be like ‘1984.’”
The business is a deep metaphor for the way Apple’s model, modern merchandise, and mission would free laptop customers from the monopolies of previous tech giants.
Guarneri says you don’t want celeb administrators and a giant finances to create your personal video narrative — simply seize your digital camera and your founder. Folks gravitate towards celeb ambassadors as a result of they humanize a model, and founders may present a humanized connection.
“Thought management is such a giant factor,” she says. “We encourage individuals to have the founders be part of the model and part of the story, as a result of then you definitely‘re creating this bigger story that’s relatable in your buyer.” They usually’ll need to continue to learn extra.
Fascinated with crafting a compelling commercial script? Take a look at this template. When you have an important concept however aren’t positive the place to begin production-wise, learn this step-by-step information.
4. Leverage main occasions or holidays.
Main cultural occasions just like the Tremendous Bowl or the Oscars are marketing campaign alternatives for giant manufacturers, who instantly have the eye of an unlimited viewers — not simply throughout the occasion, however usually for weeks earlier than and after.
It doesn’t value gazillions of {dollars} to create campaigns with references to popular culture or present occasions. These may embody weblog posts about how an occasion pertains to your business, social media posts that leverage topical hashtags, or a advertising video about how your prospects could be celebrating an occasion.
Guarneri suggests discovering methods to combine on-line and IRL engagement. “When you have a restaurant,” she says, “you possibly can create a specialty merchandise. You might do a reduction promo if individuals come inside a sure window. Perhaps your restaurant or bar can create one thing upfront the place individuals need to purchase that product to carry to their events.”
Should you create an Insta-worthy Tremendous Bowl-themed cupcake, for example, individuals will put up photographs to their social media, “making a buzz, and everybody will need to buy it … after which it sells out in time for the Tremendous Bowl,” Guarneri says. “That’s the aim.”
Throughout the large recreation in 2020, power drink model G-Gasoline requested Twitter customers to answer with who they assume will win the #SuperBowl. The tweet contains a picture of two G-Gasoline drinks in entrance of a soccer discipline:
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This capitalizes on the #SuperBowl hashtag, which will probably be seen by thousands and thousands of soccer followers. You’ll notice that the Tremendous Bowl isn’t talked about within the advert itself, although — it’s a trademark owned by the NFL, which doesn’t enable manufacturers to make use of the occasion title “with business intent.”
Certainly one of our previous masters in advertising, Hassan S. Ali, has some artistic concepts on skirting authorized points. So do Newcastle Brown Ale and Anna Kendrick:
5. Lean into co-marketing.
Even large manufacturers search for extra budget-friendly promoting, like this 2015 co-marketed Tremendous Bowl advert. Co-marketing is when two or extra manufacturers be part of forces — plus cash, time, effort, and sources — to create a single piece of content material that highlights all of the manufacturers concerned.
For this advert, Newcastle pooled its cash with 37 different manufacturers to purchase a Tremendous Bowl advert slot, which they appropriately titled “Band of Manufacturers”:
6. Contemplate influencer advertising.
Except for high-budget productions and gripping narratives, Tremendous Bowl commercials are additionally identified for his or her star-studded casts. Bear in mind this Amazon Echo business the place Alexa is voiced by a handful of common celebrities?
Though you in all probability cannot rent stars like Cardi B, you may need finances for a micro-influencer who’s credible and extremely adopted in your business.
Once you sponsor an influencer who actually understands their viewers and your business, they’re going to create and publish content material that intrigues their viewers whereas additionally highlighting your product.
An influencer advertising technique will also be particularly efficient on social media channels like Fb, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
On this instance, the smartphone recreation “Run Round” sponsored a TikTok person who’s gained greater than 15,000 followers just by recording herself enjoying cell video games. The model recognized that gaming-oriented audiences have been on TikTok and sponsored an influencer whose viewers anticipates her cell recreation critiques and demonstrations.
7. Use counter-programming.
Certain, greater than 100 million individuals within the U.S. will probably be watching the large recreation, however one other 200 some million received’t be. In case your audience is among the many latter, you will have the chance to seize their consideration whereas all people else is watching Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.
Two phrases: Pet Bowl.
Two extra phrases: Kitten Bowl.
Some years in the past, Twitter customers made their very own counter-programming, gleefully sharing footage of owls as an alternative of speaking about sportsball:
Social listening could assist you to decide what your viewers is pondering and what they’re doing in the event that they’re not consuming seven-layer dip and shouting at males in tight pants on TV.
8. Contemplate digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH).
Steve Nicklin, senior vice chairman of selling and analytics for the Out of House Promoting Affiliation of America, argues in a latest weblog put up that “DOOH provides a compelling different to conventional Tremendous Bowl promoting on the similar value.”
Nicklin cites a month-long, $7 million DOOH marketing campaign that confirmed 7.5x extra attain than a 30-second Tremendous Bowl spot. He additionally factors out that this isn’t a zero sum recreation: “After all Tremendous Bowl advertisements are nonetheless a significant model second, however to maximise their affect and funding, manufacturers ought to think about an built-in, omnichannel strategy, one which makes use of DOOH in pre-game buildup, enhances TV spots with real-time DOOH updates and continues the dialog post-game to strengthen key messages and leverage large recreation moments.”
His recommendation for reaching youthful audiences? “Savvy manufacturers may incorporate social media components in DOOH advertisements to extend on-line model engagement, particularly amongst youthful followers.”
Making a Tremendous Bowl-High quality Advert
As you’re employed in the direction of creating a high quality advert on a finances, preserve these scalable large model suggestions in thoughts:
Inform an important story: Pull your viewers in, enable them to narrate to your model, and hook them by presenting how your product may help them.
Embrace present occasions: Craft campaigns that contact on extremely mentioned on-trend occasions, such because the Tremendous Bowl, award exhibits, or holidays — particularly in the event that they relate strongly to your model.
Leverage manufacturers and influencers: Partnering with manufacturers and influencers can earn consideration from comparable audiences that you have not already reached. To get began, analysis and construct relationships with manufacturers and influencers that your audiences or industries look to for credible suggestions.
Tremendous Bowl Promoting for the Remainder of Us
Even on a small finances, a bit planning and loads of creativity go a good distance. Use and adapt these classes from the large manufacturers to make tremendous advertisements all 12 months lengthy. A remaining phrase of recommendation from Guarneri: “It’s important to determine what‘s best for you as a model — what’s value your time, power, and sources — after which how properly are you able to execute it. Should you‘re going to spend time doing one thing, you need to ensure that it’s prime quality.”
Editor’s notice: This put up was initially revealed in January 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.