The battleground for Super Bowl® marketing screen supremacy among sports marketers has shifted. Traditional debates over first and second screens — or linear and streaming screens — best for capturing consumer interest have taken on a new dimension from past gridiron classics.
Record TV and streaming ratings this year aside, they no longer represent what’s driving the most compelling content consumption pattern around the Big Game.
The complete Super Bowl marketing experience is now defined by what serves audiences on short-form screens. This movement to digital content screens with snackable bits preferred by social-first consumers is reshaping how brands connect with target purchasers. That includes activity before, during and after sports’ biggest day — and other live sports events year round.
As we saw this weekend, winning brands capitalized on short-form digital media and conversations on social platforms. They aimed to capture the world’s attention, optimize their creative AND stretch their marketing spend (a reported average of $7 million per 30-second linear broadcast ad spot).
From sponsored game highlights and engaging behind-the-scenes peeks to memorable game ad spots and trending viral moments on and off the field, they showed up. They understood the power of brevity and fandom among mobile-first sports audiences.
So, they folded short-form screen strategies incorporating this content into their broader marketing approaches around the event. And they customized content and messaging by social platform to reflect the environments and audiences of each.
Three short-form screen trends dominated Super Bowl LVIII. Marketers everywhere can replicate these throughout the year to make the most of your own sponsored live sports events.
1. Multi-Platform Executions Build Integrated Brand Plays
Video-based platforms like TikTok, Instagram Stories and YouTube Shorts were made to deliver bite-sized, engaging content tailored to the real-time, global phenomenon that is Super Bowl Sunday.
They’ve also proven to offer the ideal short-form screen environment for marketers. Brand teams can extend and integrate linear ad campaigns with paid and organic support, boosting their ROI. Many brands teased their campaigns with holistic approaches across digital and broadcast channels. They ran these campaigns in the run up to game day, during the big event, and even after to continue their momentum. Here are just a few:
Dunkin’
- The brand began to tell the story that culminated in its hilarious second-quarter ad spot before game day. Multiple creative variations ran across platforms.
- On X, it followed up on the ad’s climactic promise to name a drink after its new musical boy band supergroup, the DunKings (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Tom Brady). Dunkin featured a consumer offer for the drink in-store the day after the game. And it shared a making-of video featuring the stars.
- On Instagram Stories, Dunkin asked fans to vote for the ad in USA Today’s Ad Meter of best game spots. This effort helped deepen the dialogue with fans and their emotional investment in the advertisement (it came in at number two). The company also promoted branded DunKings merchandise on the platform to round out this multi-pronged effort.
Pizza Hut
- A linear pre-game Pizza Hut sponsorship led to a “breaking announcement” during hosts’ on-air commentary. This flipped to an ad spot with NY Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito and actress Antonia Gentry promoting the brand’s new product offerings. The spot ran on linear and social channels timed to spur pre-game pizza orders.
- The company also extended its “Pizza Whut” linear ad campaign with musical artist Li’l Jon on social media.
- The brand’s campaign fostered real-time conversations on X. And it spurred short-form UGC video content on TikTok leading up to and during the game. In this way, Pizza Hut captured consumer attention in content formats befitting each platform.
T-Mobile
- The mobile carrier ran synchronized ads across the broadcast network simulcast, aligned with social.
- It featured multiple creative executions with different talent and stories, all rolling up to its core brand messages.
- One of the ads that ran on broadcast and social channels featured star Bradley Cooper and his mom. They filmed a throwback to their fun spot from last year’s game. Revisiting creative themes that work (or even capturing extra footage during the original ad shoot) is a favorite efficiency tip for Super Bowl brands. It extends the life of campaigns on social media long after the broadcast ends.
2. Athlete & Artist Social Content Moves Fan Connections Up Field
We say this often at Greenfly, and the maxim holds true for Super Bowl marketing: People follow people. Fans prefer to follow and engage with their favorite athletes and talent on social platforms over even their favorite sports properties, networks and consumer brands.
So sharp marketers think about how to align their companies with short-form content highlighting those in the spotlight on game day for more reach and to build deeper consumer bonds. And Super Bowl LVIII did not disappoint.
Player Arrivals
- As we’ve seen across sports leagues and teams, sponsored signage visible during player arrivals to the venue is a repeatable brand strategy for any game day. This content generates incremental brand awareness alongside huge engagement on social media among fans rushing to see their favorite players and their stylish looks.
- The Uber Eats campaign included a memorable ad (about forgetting). And it had a prime spot for the company’s sponsorship signage as a backdrop to players and other participating celebrities arriving at the game. Its branded logo wall featured prominently across the broadcast and social channel pre-game coverage of these entrances. The advantage of social media is that fans can continue to enjoy these moments after the game broadcast. They can find them on collaborator feeds, Instagram Stories highlights, Reels and more.
- Brands also have come to anticipate that players will share these popular short-form clips with their fans, extending their reach. At the Super Bowl, even Kristin Juszczyk, the rising designer, influencer and wife of 49ers running back Kyle Juszczyk, did precisely that.
Music Headliners
- Halftime headliner Usher featured in BMW’s Super Bowl campaign on broadcast and social platforms. The humorous ad ran on-air in the first quarter, with a nod to his coming performance for extra audience resonance. The music star shared the spot on his social channels to tie in with his event appearance.
- And TikTok Tailgate star Gwen Stefani brought fans along for the ride. She shared snippets throughout the event weekend. These updates led up to her live performance on the social platform (with clips airing on broadcast). This programming event helped TikTok as a brand cement the platform’s status as a critical channel for new music discovery.
- Fans shared her performance clips and their own UGC content (featuring sponsor logos) from the event. This helped secure vast TikTok reach and engagement far beyond the live sports event.
Taylor Swift: The Fan
- The Taylor Swift phenomenon that had been building all season was in full force on Super Bowl Sunday, capped off by the Kansas City Chiefs nail-biter of an overtime win. Swift’s Super Bowl plans energized brands across ad categories. They wanted to connect with new-to-football, social-first audiences and “Swifties” who followed her.
- It was particularly compelling for brands who weren’t official event sponsors. They knew they could build fan connections through original short-form content leveraging the groundswell of social attention around the artist’s attendance at the game. They accomplished this in ways they couldn’t execute on linear channels.
- Priceline.com enlisted former college football quarterback and current analyst Max Browne and his Swiftie-fan wife, Victoria, to record a whirlwind five-day trip. Their journey spanned from seeing Swift at her Tokyo tour stop to their seats at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. They documented it all for their social channels and the brand’s. They captured their adventures in quick-hit v-log content native to social platforms like Instagram Reels and Stories.
3. Creator Content & UGC Offer Unique Connection Points
It’s not just Hollywood stars fronting Super Bowl marketing campaigns and gameday content anymore. Gen Z’s social-grown, seemingly more accessible and relatable favorites are often more enticing to those audiences to drive engagement and activation.
Consequently, more brand ambassadors, influencers and content creators on game day are emerging as faces fronting brand ads and other short-form screen social content. That lineup includes former and rising athletes, gameside correspondents and even super fans. They stir viral moments and expand brand conversations with target consumer communities. In this way, traditionally pushing ad content on linear channels has given way to pulling in and engaging audiences with authentic content on social media. Marketers can better nurture campaign dialogues and deeper relationships.
Khaby Lame
- Platforms like YouTube and TikTok excel at nurturing video content creators who help brands promote their products in ways unique to each talent’s short-form video storytelling abilities and audience.
- Pepsi enlisted social star Khaby Lame as a correspondent during Super Bowl weekend. He captured original snippets of his gameday POV, in his own style. These were shared on his social channels and the brand’s.
- The beverage company featured produced ad content with Lame and Pepsi Zero Sugar Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud, to integrate the campaign.
Anna Frey
- Rising teenage tennis player and TikTok viral star Anna Frey rocketed to social fame recently. Why? She bears a striking resemblance to San Francisco 49ers player Brock Purdy.
- She secured a Super Bowl invite via the social channel. It came courtesy of her NIL deal with workout supplement brand SixStar Pro Nutrition.
- Frey documented her visit to the game from her POV in the stands. She shared a short-form tailgate video clip promoting SixStar on her TikTok channel. This clip gave the brand real-time exposure on the event day in the authentic way that scores big on the platform.
Michael Cera — and Creators
- For weeks, social content creators have been wondering online through their original videos why actor Michael Cera was carrying around bags of the CeraVe moisturizer brand sharing his name. The internet wanted to know: Was he becoming a skincare influencer?
- TikTok stars like Hayleyy Baylee fanned the flames of consumer interest around this mystery. They shared videos of Michael Cera and CeraVe in the wild through paid partnerships with the brand. This activity built up brand talk in native ways and their own winning styles that short-form content screens are made for these days.
- For its first Super Bowl marketing campaign, CeraVe went for the big prank payoff. The brand ran an ad on-air and across social media featuring Cera purporting to have developed the product himself. The company brilliantly and humorously advised fans on social media NOT to post this ad, lest people not realize professional dermatologists actually developed the product. It was a stellar end to a carefully layered effort designed for short-form content screens. The campaign stood out by combining an established talent with influential creators.
Whether you’re managing Super Bowl marketing or promoting your brand around any live sports event, Greenfly has you covered.
Our short-form digital media orchestration platform helps you execute new short-form screen content strategies. That’s the case whether you’re a brand marketer, broadcaster, sports league or team. Integrate your short-form game, athlete, talent, fan and partner content in one place for easy access.
To learn more, reach out — we’d love to help you optimize your marketing strategy.
