Your Tremendous Bowl Recap, Creator Advertising Version (HBBIP #122)

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Because of the nature of each linear time and CreatorIQ’s knowledge vetting course of, it takes a short while to gather our findings in regards to the Large Recreation. To place in additional snackworthy phrases, our Tremendous Bowl knowledge isn’t a smashburger, however a stew; for finest outcomes, you need to let all that scrumptious percolate, marinate, and simmer.

Properly I hope you’re hungry, as a result of dinner’s prepared, and good issues come to those that wait.

There are such a lot of angles that we may tackle the Tremendous Bowl, which offers among the tastiest treats we’ll see all 12 months. Belief me: this knowledge is much more fascinating than the sport ended up being. (Don’t get me flawed, I like nice punting and watching the Patriots lose as a lot as anybody, however I don’t assume we’re going to be seeing too many performs from this one on the historic NFL spotlight reel.)

To make issues extra digestible, we’re going to divide our investigation into three buckets:

• The manufacturers that made the most important splash within the leadup to the Tremendous Bowl (Monday, February 2nd by means of Friday, February sixth).
• The manufacturers that noticed the best affect throughout the peak of Tremendous Bowl festivities (Sunday, February eighth and Monday, February ninth).
• The tendencies we noticed throughout the manufacturers and creators that scored essentially the most factors on social all through that point interval.

These tendencies, manufacturers, and creators are measured by Earned Media Worth (EMV), Impressions, and Engagements, as primarily based on CreatorIQ’s industry-leading U.S. creator panel.

Sounds fairly good to me, or a minimum of higher than watching Drake Maye get sacked once more. Let’s go to the tape!

The Prime Occasion of All Time (of the Week): Tremendous Bowl LX

As promised, let’s dive proper in with the highest manufacturers within the leadup to the Large Recreation.

1. The Pre-Recreation

Primarily based largely on manufacturers that launched their Tremendous Bowl advertisements upfront of the sport, in an ever-accelerating try to capitalize on hype amid an more and more fractured consideration economic system, these winners scored massive due to a number of themes that have been mirrored all through 2026’s version of America’s favourite day: AI; a mixture of celebrities, creators, and athletes; and a return to type for alcohol manufacturers, which have suffered as of late as a result of shifting shopper sentiment.

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl EMV, 2/2 – 2/6

Right here now we have our prime manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl-related EMV—once more, that’s EMV pushed by posts that instantly reference stated model together with the Tremendous Bowl—throughout the week previous to the Tremendous Bowl: Monday February 2nd by means of February sixth.

These early birds gained out due to attention-grabbing advert campaigns previous to the Large Recreation. You may have a historic Tremendous Bowl stalwart in Budweiser, together with new cash Tremendous Bowl advertisers like E.L.F. Cosmetics and Uber Eats, every with advertisements fronted by celebrities. In the meantime, all people loves dinosaurs, and Xfinity’s nostalgic Jurassic Park advert proved an on the spot hit.

However Oakley. That got here as a shock, a minimum of to me.

We’ll go into additional element about our associates at Oakley, as a result of they’re going to be popping up a superb deal extra, however for now, let’s see how this listing adjustments, or doesn’t change, after we take a look at Tremendous Bowl EMV as a proportion of manufacturers’ whole EMV throughout this time interval:

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl EMV as a % of Complete EMV, 2/2 – 2/6

Naturally, dialog about Budweiser in early February tends to revolve across the Clydesdales. Whereas Uber Eats and Xfinity stay on the listing, Pringles and Svedka now burst onto the scene, underscoring the facility that Large Potato holds over the American shopper. (I imply actually: is it simply me, or have been there so much of advertisements about rising potatoes?)

We start to see the identical manufacturers, and related tendencies, after we take a look at different metrics, together with impressions:

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Impressions, 2/2 – 2/6

Once more with Oakley! And now its operating mate, Meta, is simply behind. In the meantime, I’m ready to declare Hellmann’s new college Tremendous Bowl royalty: for a number of years operating, their advertisements have constantly delivered.

And relating to impressions by proportion, it’s extra of the same old suspects:

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Impressions as a % of Complete Impressions, 2/2 – 2/6

The people who find themselves viewing content material about these manufacturers from 2/2 to 2/6 are doing so due to the Tremendous Bowl. You may not have wanted this text to determine that out, however now you’ve gotten a helpful infographic to assist that time. Hooray!

I guess you possibly can predict a minimum of one of many prime 5 manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl-related engagements from 2/2 to 2/6:

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Engagements, 2/2 – 2/6

Like I advised you: individuals love dinosaurs, meals, sun shades, and beer in that order. Widespread data.

I wouldn’t have essentially predicted the share breakdown for engagements, although:

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Engagements as a % of Complete Engagements, 2/2 – 2/6

That’s nearly fully Tremendous Bowl-driven protection for Svedka’s engagements, and darn near it for Budweiser. Amid rocky occasions for the alcoholic beverage {industry}, the Tremendous Bowl definitely looks like an efficient software for mobilizing individuals to drink. In any case, we don’t name these ‘pre-game’ numbers for nothing.

So what can we be taught from the stretch earlier than the Tremendous Bowl?

• There’s particular pleasure round AI, with most of the prime Tremendous Bowl-related posts we noticed throughout this time interval emphasizing both AI manufacturers or AI-related themes.
• Dialog round Open AI, Anthropic, and ChatGPT centered largely round Anthropic’s advert, which creators and commentators within the tech area perceived as firing pictures in opposition to its rivals for that includes advertisements.
• In the meantime, Meta and Oakley scored among the most impactful items of content material we noticed within the run-up to the Tremendous Bowl through their “Athletic Intelligence” marketing campaign, which put a sports-themed spin on their signature glasses
  • Oakley additionally loved an Impactful partnership publish from the Patriots, not that it ended up doing New England that many favors within the Large Recreation.
• Dialog round Svedka, in the meantime, was all in regards to the model’s AI-generated advert. 
  • Notice that, judging by the feedback, not everybody actually appreciated AI’s imaginative and prescient for these pleasant dancing robots (accusations of ‘AI slop’ acquired thrown round). However hey, prefer it or not, it did get individuals speaking.
• Manufacturers are balancing celeb and creator endorsements:

That’s all nicely and good for an appetizer—a rooster wing, say, or a singular nacho. However how about the principle course?

2. The Recreation (and Afterwards)

Did we see a distinct forged of characters when it got here to the manufacturers driving the very best totals on Sunday 2/8 and Monday 2/9? Properly, sure and no.

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Day EMV

In what shouldn’t come as a shock to sports activities followers, Fanatics had what’s most likely its greatest day of the 12 months, yearly, a minimum of outdoors of Fanatics Fest. That’s form of a gimme, what with the entire sports activities theme. Our outdated associates Oakley, Google, and Uber Eats carried over their momentum, however let’s give a heat welcome to Ritz, whose advert that includes celebrities being salty was a giant hit with the snack set.

Circle that “being salty” theme…it’ll come again round.

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Day Impressions

The same image for day-of impressions: massive outcomes for Fanatics, with Oakley, Ritz, and Google as soon as once more within the combine. In the meantime, E.L.F. Cosmetics makes a reappearance due to a preferred telenovela-themed spot starring Melissa McCarthy.

Prime Manufacturers by Tremendous Bowl Day Engagements

Engagements is just about the identical image, although it underscores simply how a lot sports activities content material flows by means of the Fanatics Social Media Universe, and the way a lot individuals appreciated that Ritz advert.

We’ve acquired our forged of characters for the day-of manufacturers, however how in regards to the day after?

Prime Manufacturers by Day-After EMV

In a really carefully matched discipline, we discover a mixture of pre-Recreation and Recreation Day manufacturers in rivalry. Oakley takes the highest spot for what creators have been speaking about on Monday morning, with Pepsi shut behind. Cadillac zooms onto the scene—extra on that under—whereas Budweiser and Fanatics spherical out the crop.

Prime Manufacturers by Day-After Impressions

The image is, uh, much less evenly matched relating to impressions. Oakley runs away with this one. Shoutout to an look from Manscaped, although! These little sentient clumps of hair stored sufficient individuals up at evening to warrant a spot on the listing.

Prime Manufacturers by Day-After Engagements

And we’re again to a decent competitors for engagements, with a few of our outdated favorites battling issues out.

I’ve simply thrown plenty of data at you—12 entire charts’ value! What does all of it imply? And what widespread threads did we see this 12 months?

3. What It All Means

Similar to Drake Maye, this text has plenty of Tremendous Bowl takeaways.

Profitable Manufacturers

• Fanatics noticed an intuitive surge on the day of the Tremendous Bowl, underscoring how integral the model has change into to many followers’ experiences of main sporting occasions, and validating my resolution to profile Fanatics in HBBIP some time again.
• Individuals have been speaking about Google’s AI-driven advert each throughout and after the Tremendous Bowl, indicating a surge in AI-driven dialog throughout social media.
• Pepsi and Cadillac have been winners primarily based on the post-Tremendous Bowl dialog, highlighting each the energy of the non-alc beverage vertical and shopper curiosity in F1—one other HBBIP highlight—with Cadillac asserting its forthcoming F1 crew.
• Oakley continued its robust displaying earlier than, throughout, and after the Tremendous Bowl due to its ‘Athletic Intelligence’ marketing campaign, which correctly blended the week’s two greatest promoting narratives: sports activities and AI.
• I may need to cowl that collab quickly, however for now, we do have HBBIP protection of Meta and Ray-Ban’s related collab.

One other Publication Tells You Issues About AI

• Oakley stood out by emphasizing sports activities and AI in a means that felt natural and related to audiences, and did so by using creators like IShowSpeed, additional tapping into digital shoppers’ sentiments.
• Compared, different AI manufacturers centered on messages that have been extra about direct or veiled comparisons to their AI rivals, and did not essentially use creators to the identical diploma.
• Anthropic, for instance, managed to generate buzz through a really pointed shot at ChatGPT. (That is the place I make that callback to staying salty.) That AI-world drama sparked dialog amongst aggregator accounts that cowl AI, however it wasn’t a frequent subject of debate amongst creators.
• One exception was Meta, which scored a hit publish due to this creator GRWM publish for the Meta/Ray-Ban Tremendous Bowl Social gathering. Nonetheless, most of Meta’s buzz stemmed from its work with Oakley.

The Position of Creators

However what did this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl imply for the entire cause that I’m writing and also you’re studying this text: creators?

From pre-game hype to day-of advertisements, and even the halftime present (we see you, Alix Earle), creators performed a constant function all through this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl.

Savvy manufacturers understood that creators present an unmatched alternative to interact youthful audiences, and included creators into campaigns accordingly. Creators featured in advertisements alongside mainstream celebrities and star athletes, claiming their seat on the desk through cameos, in-the-know moments, and refined winks on the viewers.

Distinguished examples included IShowSpeed, whose work with Meta/Oakley on their ‘Athletic Intelligence’ glasses helped propel that marketing campaign to one of many Tremendous Bowl’s smash hits. In the meantime, Uber Eats scored massive not solely with Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper, however TikTok celebrity Addison Rae, who shared her personal twist on the model’s food-themed advert along with her tens of millions of followers on social. Different advertisements featured creator royalty like Druski (T-Cellular), MrBeast (Salesforce), and Paige DeSorbo (Kinder Bueno), additional underscoring creators’ standing as a central pillar of up to date promoting and brand-building.

In different phrases, whereas the Tremendous Bowl’s huge scale may get all the eye, it’s creators’ credibility that drove actual engagement. And that form of engagement, particularly on the media’s grandest scale, isn’t going wherever.

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