Hack the Super Bowl, Win the Super Bowl

Innovative plays from Twix, Skittles and Newcastle

This is the only time of year when people remotely care about what brands have to say—so they go all in. And they go big: Big celebrities, big spends, big productions.

But as budgets shrink and AI makes adverts start to look the same, it’s becoming harder for brands to stand out through sheer force and scale. Winning now requires being smarter—not just throwing more money at the problem.

The good news is, if you break the Super Bowl advertising rules, no one kicks you out of the game. And when we look back at the ads that succeeded and stood the test of time, they were never playing by the rules.

Easier said than done. As a creative, when you receive a Super Bowl brief, your instinct tells you this is the moment to make a big ad with a big budget and a big celebrity—something spectacular, massive, crazy.

But to win this game, we have to go against our own instincts.

Hacking the big screen

The days of “pay $5 million to reach 100 million viewers” are long gone. The game isn’t just what happens on TV anymore—it’s what happens before, during and after. Brands that treat the Super Bowl as a cultural event generate far more engagement and impact than simply appearing on the “big screen.”

Fragmented conversations happening simultaneously across multiple platforms are where the real opportunity lies. Everything before, during and after—everywhere, all at once.

Instead of spending their media budget on TV, Twix bought gold. Betting on second-screen behavior, they invited people to stare at their phones during a commercial break. Two pairs of eyes on two pieces of gold stared back at you, tracking how long you could keep staring—for the chance to win actual solid gold. Ultimately, people were looking at the phone-based Twix ad instead of their TVs.

Hacking the use of celebrities

Celebrity endorsements have become a commodity on the Super Bowl, making it more unexpected when a big brand decides not to use famous folks—or else finds clever ways to use unknowns.

Like Skittles, which decided to make a teenage boy named Marcos Menendez the main hero of their Big Game ad.

They realized they could speak to millions by speaking to just one person. So they made an entire ad for ONE PERSON ONLY: Marcos. Without spending a single dollar on TV media. People tuned in to watch one guy watch his own ad on a YouTube livestream: a spot 100 percent customized for him, featuring a doppelgänger, surprise appearances from his friends, his mom … and, most unexpectedly, David Schwimmer.

Schwimmer wasn’t on TV;l he was there just for Marcos. A huge celebrity used for a tiny, hyper-personal moment. An ad made for one person ended up being the most talked-about Skittles spot ever.

Hacking big budgets

Newcastle famously used their small (or lack of) budget to produce a Super Bowl commercial. They decided to air their storyboard instead of the finished ad. The result was funnier, more absurd and more memorable than actually shooting the spot.

Play

And as budgets get smaller, one thing to watch out for would be the hottest topic this year: AI.

Many clients will probably want to use AI for “efficiencies” (aka cost-cutting) instead of as a tool to elevate ideas, improve quality and enhance craft. It’s tempting, but the danger is clear: What one brand generates with AI will look just like what every other brand generates with AI, making it even harder to stand out.

I’m excited to see who will hack the Super Bowl this year—and how they’ll go about it.