Super Bowl Gives Brands a Chance to Make Fans for Life

If they can meet the big moment

My biggest gripe with Super Bowl campaigns is that most brands are just advertising during the Big Game, instead of creating content designed to coexist within the Super Bowl. Those that do—like Rocket Mortgage and Uber Eats in 2025—can reap enviable rewards.

Brands must keep in mind: this game is the pinnacle for two teams as well as their fans. So, why are advertisers not recalibrating their approach to ensure they’re speaking to this pair of rabid fanbases praying to the football universal power that their team prevails?

Win them over, and you probably add brand fans for life.

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Once marketers position themselves to coexist within the Super Bowl, the sky’s the limit. Tech companies can highlight how their products help folks experience life differently; beer brands can amplify the camaraderie of the fan experience (after all, nothing beats the crew you’re sitting with at a game or in bar, especially when they buy you a drink because the vibes are high—or low).

And because I’d love to see this happen, please market to the always-present viewers who know nothing about football but really appreciate having a good time, so they never skip a Super Bowl gathering.

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Brands also need to start pumping out social content weeks before the game, including memes—the more self-deprecating the better.

Also, they should realize a lot of people are glued to TVs the final 3-4 games of the season because of team records (plus fantasy football playoffs are between week 15 and 17). If you’re going to be at the Big Game, why not start engaging with these audiences well in advance of the day? Who wouldn’t want to earn the receipt that their brand experienced incremental gains a month or so before the Super Bowl?

It will never be a waste of money to buy a Big Game spot. But it will surely be a wasted opportunity for marketers if they misread the emotional temperature of the moment.

Super Bowl ads aren’t judged like normal ads: they’re reviewed, ranked, memed and remembered. This is maximum cultural recall. No other ad buy comes pre-loaded with next-day analysis, social ranking, office chatter and press coverage.

The Super Bowl is the only media placement where the ad itself becomes news. If a brand gets it right, the conversation lasts weeks, not seconds—and that earned attention is impossible to replicate with paid placements alone.

And as AI floods the Internet with slop, the Super Bowl’s power increases. It’s live, imperfect and unrepeatable. It’s real.

Lean into coexisting with the moment. Or don’t, and ask yourself why you missed such a powerful opportunity.