With more than 90 million viewers in the U.S. alone, the Super Bowl has been the biggest night for advertisers for decades. But with advertising rates climbing to $6.5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial cost in 2022 (up from $6.0 million in 2021), brands must do everything they can to get the most return on their investment.

Whether your brand markets within the game or decides to use guerrilla marketing tactics, your business doesn’t have to have deep pockets to leverage the reach of the Super Bowl for your marketing and media planning and buying. These proven media strategies show how you can raise Super Bowl advertisement ROI before, during, and after the big game.

Super Bowl Advertisement Creative Media Strategies

Despite the high price tags for traditional Super Bowl advertising, there’s good news. Today, we’re connected to devices more than ever before, which presents opportunities for advertisers. According to Forbes, a study of more than 10,000 people found global online content consumption doubled in 2020, to reach nearly seven hours a day. All that connectivity gives you plenty of places to reach people with your business.

Before the Game

There’s a lot of anticipation before a Super Bowl game. Football fans watch the regular season and playoffs to see how their favorite teams fare. Even non-football fans look forward to planning gatherings or attending parties on Super Bowl day. Whether you like the sport or not, Super Bowl watchers often stay glued to the commercials to see which celebrities and influential spots pop up on the screen.

This year’s Super Bowl takes place Sunday, February 13. In the weeks leading up, you can take a cue from other brands that have built campaigns upon the excitement of the event itself, as well as the marketing that accompanies it.

For example, in 2017, beverage company Bai Brands launched a teaser video on social media six days before the event, featuring spokesperson and celebrity musician/actor Justin Timberlake. The teaser had Timberlake staring into the camera as it slowly panned away, before the date for the full-length commercial launch (and Super Bowl) flashed on the screen. Timberlake shared the post on his Instagram page with the caption, “What are you doing this weekend? #SB51 @drinkbai”

For fans of Timberlake, even if they weren’t planning to watch the game, they might tune in to see his (and Bai’s) commercial. Timberlake’s Instagram followers might have also visited the Bai website in advance to learn about the brand before the entire commercial debuted.

Some brands take a different approach to pre-Super Bowl advertising, rejecting the commercial format altogether to pass on savings to customers. Our client, Mint Mobile did just that in 2020, when owner Ryan Reynolds promoted an offer of three months of free service to customers who signed up during the game.

If you don’t have the budget for a commercial, you can still think of ways to use Super Bowl hype for your pre-game marketing strategy. For example:

• Use the Super Bowl to inspire ad creative, with a play on the game or competition – for example, an ad that pits two of your most popular products against each other in a consumer poll
• Promote an offer that’s tied in to the date of the Super Bowl
• Use Super Bowl themes and hashtags in your pre-game campaigns

You can start promoting ad campaigns related to the Super Bowl right after the holidays to capitalize on building anticipation for all types of consumers.

During the Game

Of course, you can buy a $6 million-plus commercial spot to air during the Super Bowl, but thanks to second screens, there’s a whole lot of other advertising opportunities. GWI reports 86% of internet users use other devices while watching TV. That means even during the big game, you can reach consumers beyond what’s on the big screen.

Social media is a great place to engage consumers while they’re watching the game. You can monitor conversations and trending hashtags on sites like Twitter to see what people are talking about and responding to. During the game, you can even create new campaigns based on what’s happening.

For example, an odd event happened during the 2013 Super Bowl: a power outage that rendered the stadium dark. While at-home viewers filled up on snacks, they also turned to social media to stay entertained during the game break.

Cookie brand Oreo took advantage of the incident, Tweeting an award-winning promotion of the famed cookie with the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.” The on-the-fly Tweet was powered by a creative advertising team working live throughout the game, looking for opportunities to capitalize on chatter and add their brand to the mix.  

Other businesses create promotions that take place during the game. For example, in 2018, real-time trivia app HQ Trivia promoted a halftime trivia round with cash prizes. People had to play during halftime if they wanted to win.

During the game, your business could build upon the action with creative ad ideas like:

• Designing a graphic that features a notable play or game meme
• Creating an ad that plays upon a memorable halftime musical performance
• Integrating a live score into a live, short-term promotion
• Promoting a campaign or special event that happens only during the game

Businesses should pay attention to both the game’s action as well as to how their customer base is interacting online during the game to identify trends and opportunities. You can create and launch ads in real time alongside the game action, or at least participate in conversations that show your base you care about their interests.

After the Game

After the Super Bowl, you can build upon ad campaigns you launched prior, or create and launch entirely new campaigns based on notable action from the game.

If you spent money on an ad, you can give it new life by running it on channels like YouTube and other social media platforms. That’s what Lexus did after its 2017 commercial ran during the game. On social media, the hashtag #ExperienceAmazing accompanied the digital spot.

Post-game email marketing strategies can also generate ROI. For example, in 2017, accommodations-sharing site Airbnb launched a Super Bowl commercial based on the theme and hashtag “#weaccept,” which lauded diversity. Two days after the game, the company sent out an email to users reiterating the message and re-sharing the commercial. Airbnb fans and other social media users could share social media content with the #weaccept hashtag, furthering a conversation about acceptance while promoting the brand post-Super Bowl.

After the game, you can:

• Create blog content that reiterates your message and highlights post-game chatter
• Communicate with consumers via email and social media to continue ad campaign conversations
• Continue to promote game-related campaign themes and hashtags in post-game advertising and marketing campaigns for a limited period.

Another way to leverage your advertising strategy post-game is to use data science and measurement to monitor campaigns and apply insights to ad strategy going forward. Some businesses may find the biggest ROI comes from nontraditional campaigns, compared to the hefty price tag of a traditional Super Bowl commercial. It’s important to align your media metrics to specific business performance outcomes.

Integrate Special Events Like the Super Bowl into Your Advertising Strategy

Whether your customers are tuning into the Super Bowl or not, you can capitalize on big national events like this to promote your brand.

• Before the event, create campaigns that tie in the hype or play on associated buzzwords and themes.
• During the event, pay attention to conversations and trends to create on-the-fly advertising and participate in chatter.
• After the event, re-share event campaigns. Build upon them with new creative, or give them new life by promoting their branded hashtags.

At Ocean Media, we help clients like Mint Mobile use innovative strategies around and related to the big game, and have purchased Super Bowl spots over the past five years for many of our clients. In this year’s game you’ll even see our work with Vroom and Rakuten! Contact us to learn more about how we can help you accelerate your company’s growth.