Cannot Afford a Tremendous Bowl Advert? Attempt These Advertising Options As a substitute [Examples & Expert Tips]

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 in the course of the huge recreation, manufacturers coughed up a cool $7 – $8 million per spot. If that’s not within the price range, listed here are seven Tremendous Bowl advert alternate options that may value you a large number much less.

I’ve additionally obtained examples of massive manufacturers with significantly inventive alternate options to Tremendous Bowl adverts, plus recommendations on utilizing Tremendous Bowl advertising and marketing methods in your personal <$7 mil campaigns.

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What Huge Manufacturers Do As a substitute of Shopping for Tremendous Bowl Adverts

In 2021, a minimum of 10 huge manufacturers — Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi amongst them — sat out Tremendous Bowl LV and directed their funds elsewhere. Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser’s mum or dad firm, donated cash towards COVID vaccine efforts.

Right here’s how two manufacturers might be celebrating this yr’s huge recreation with out an official advert spot, an honorable point out, and one iconic various advert:

Perdue Hen: Wingin’ It

On February 9, Perdue will accomplice with actor/singer/comic Wayne Brady for a non-Tremendous Bowl Tremendous Bowl advert. Moderately than shopping for a $7 million advert spot, Perdue will characteristic Brady on Instagram Dwell all through the sport — anticipate skits, Q&As, and different comedic bits.

Captain Morgan: Rum Avenue

Tremendous Bowl LIX might be hosted by Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, well-known for its French Quarter, Mardi Gras celebrations, and Bourbon Avenue.

Besides that this yr, Captain Morgan is popping bourbon into rum with its Rum Avenue activation. The dwell 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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Duolingo

We’re calling this an honorable point out since Duolingo’s 2024 Tremendous Bowl marketing campaign started with an official advert — however it was solely 5 seconds lengthy.

The actual marketing campaign got here within the type of coordinated push notifications — despatched instantly after the advert aired — reminding learners to observe.

Duolingo known as it a technical threat: “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 potential to ship a push notification to 4 million learners in 5 seconds with out crashing our app.”

It was, they usually did. It’s value noting that the owl app solely took the chance as a result of it had executed a variety 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 might have woke up your inside theater child, however it was nonetheless fairly costly. And, as a small- to medium-sized enterprise marketer, you possible cannot afford a Broadway manufacturing.

So, what do you do if you do not have thousands and thousands in your price range just like the manufacturers above?

Under, I‘ll record seven promoting methods that manufacturers use in the course of the Tremendous Bowl. For every, I’ll stroll you thru how one can make the most of every on a a lot smaller scale whereas nonetheless successfully gaining model consciousness.

As a small enterprise marketer, you needn’t pay for a high-priced televised advert slot to get seen by the fitting audiences — social media performs a predictably big position in promoting.

Twitter was once a chief spot for Tremendous Bowl-adjacent adverts, with its personal Model Bowl roundup of finest model tweets. However because it reworked from Twitter to X, advertisers are spending considerably much less cash there — 50% much less, in response to 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.

If you 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:

Think about using different strategies to attract consideration, comparable to presenting a relatable ache level, providing a price proposition, or inserting viewers into an action-filled scene when the video begins enjoying.

If you happen to want extra inspiration, right here’s some fan-favorite adverts (and a few advertising and marketing classes) from Tremendous Bowl 2024.

2. Dive deeper with a video narrative.

Tremendous Bowl adverts typically really feel like miniature films. Moderately than establishing a fundamental ache level and providing a easy product-based answer, they typically 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 industrial, a narrator broadcasts, “On January twenty fourth, 1984, Apple will introduce Macintosh. And you may see why 1984 will not be like ‘1984.’”

The industrial is a deep metaphor for a way Apple’s model, revolutionary merchandise, and mission would free pc customers from the monopolies of previous tech giants.

Though Apple had extra sources than the typical small biz, all it takes to create an attention-grabbing narrative advert is a few inventive workforce members and reasonably priced video gear.

Fascinated with crafting a compelling commercial script? Take a look at this template. You probably have an excellent thought however aren’t certain the place to start out production-wise, learn this step-by-step information.

3. Leverage main occasions or holidays.

Main cultural occasions just like the Tremendous Bowl or the Oscars are marketing campaign alternatives for large manufacturers, who all of the sudden have the eye of an infinite viewers — not simply in the course of the occasion, however typically 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 might embody weblog posts about how an occasion pertains to your business, social media posts that leverage topical hashtags, or a advertising and marketing video about how your prospects is perhaps celebrating an occasion.

Through the huge recreation in 2020, power drink model G-Gas requested Twitter customers to answer with who they suppose will win the #SuperBowl. The tweet consists of a picture of two G-Gas drinks in entrance of a soccer subject:

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This capitalizes on the #SuperBowl hashtag, which might be seen by thousands and thousands of soccer followers. You’ll be aware that the Tremendous Bowl isn’t talked about within the advert itself, although — it’s a trademark owned by the NFL, which doesn’t permit manufacturers to make use of the occasion title “with industrial intent.”

One among our previous masters in advertising and marketing, Hassan S. Ali, has some inventive concepts on skirting authorized points. So do Newcastle Brown Ale and Anna Kendrick:

4. Lean into co-marketing.

Even huge manufacturers search for extra budget-friendly promoting, like this 2015 co-marketed Tremendous Bowl advert. Co-marketing is when two or extra manufacturers be a 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”:

5. Contemplate influencer advertising and marketing.

Apart from 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 industrial the place Alexa is voiced by a handful of well-liked celebrities?

Though you most likely cannot rent stars like Cardi B, you might need price range for a micro-influencer who’s credible and extremely adopted in your business.

While you sponsor an influencer who actually understands their viewers and your business, they will create and publish content material that intrigues their viewers whereas additionally highlighting your product.

An influencer advertising and marketing technique may 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 cellular video games. The model recognized that gaming-oriented audiences have been on TikTok and sponsored an influencer whose viewers anticipates her cellular recreation evaluations and demonstrations.

6. Use counter-programming.

Positive, greater than 100 million individuals within the U.S. might be watching the massive recreation, however one other 200 some million received’t be. In case your viewers is among the many latter, you could have the chance to seize their consideration whereas everyone 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 becoming a member of the Tremendous Bowl convo.

Social listening might allow 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.

7. Contemplate digital out-of-home advertising and marketing (DOOH).

Steve Nicklin, senior vp of selling and analytics for the Out of Residence Promoting Affiliation of America, argues in a latest weblog publish that “DOOH presents a compelling various to conventional Tremendous Bowl promoting on the identical 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 adverts are nonetheless a significant model second, however to maximise their affect and funding, manufacturers ought to take into account 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 huge recreation moments.”

His recommendation for reaching youthful audiences? “Savvy manufacturers may incorporate social media parts in DOOH adverts to extend on-line model engagement, particularly amongst youthful followers.”