From gaming integrations to post-game activations, marketers at Super Bowl LX reveal how cultural insight and strategy now matter more than the 30-second spot.
The Super Bowl has long been advertising’s biggest stage. This year, it was also its most strategic.
As brands descended on the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX, the conversation among marketers was less about star power and splashy spots—and more about culture, data, and long-term impact. The Zappi team spent the week at the Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Summit speaking with executives from Lowe’s, the NFL, Liquid I.V., Manscaped, and others to understand how leading advertisers are rethinking the Big Game.
The takeaway was clear: success no longer hinges on a single commercial. It depends on how intelligently a brand connects to audiences before, during, and long after kickoff.
Lowe’s Finds Football Fans Where They Already Live: Gaming
Home improvement is not an obvious Super Bowl category. Beer, snacks and cars dominate game-day traditions; hammers and power drills do not.
Rather than forcing itself awkwardly into football culture, Lowe’s asked a more relevant question: where do future homeowners spend their time?
The answer was gaming.
Through a partnership with EA Sports, Lowe’s embedded its brand directly into virtual environments where Gen Z and millennial audiences spend hours every day. VP of Media and Sports Marketing Gerardo Soto noted that some players spend as many as 3 hours daily in these spaces—an attention level that traditional media rarely delivers.
Built around the insight that people “earn their Sunday” by putting in the work during the week, Lowe’s positioned itself as the brand that helps you finish projects so you can fully enjoy game day. The campaign came to life through experiential activations, including an EA Sports gaming truck and 19 stadium stops.
The results were hard to ignore: a 43 percent lift in purchase intent—proof that relevance beats volume.
Also Read: Super Bowl 2026: When the Commercials Became Bigger Than the Game
The NFL’s Expanding Playbook
For the NFL, growth no longer means simply getting bigger; it means getting broader.
Executives from the league’s Global Brand and Consumer Marketing team outlined a strategy focused on reaching younger fans and underrepresented communities while creating multiple entry points into football culture.
Some come for the sport. Others arrive for the halftime show, a favorite player, or the social moment itself. The NFL’s job, they explained, is to welcome them all.
Purpose-driven programs such as Inspire Change and My Cause My Cleats—where players highlight charities through custom-designed cleats—have helped humanize the league and deepen community ties. The approach blends local authenticity with global ambition, ensuring the NFL remains both massive and personal.
Liquid I.V.: A Hollywood Approach to a Super Bowl Ad
While many brands now release ads weeks in advance, Liquid I.V. chose the opposite strategy.
Chief Marketing Officer Stacey Andrade-Wells described treating the company’s Super Bowl debut like a movie premiere: trailers, a custom soundtrack, and a carefully guarded reveal on game day itself.
Instead of relying on celebrity cameos, the brand partnered with Grammy-winning songwriter EJAE to craft a culturally credible soundtrack—keeping the product, not a famous face, at the center of attention.
The strategy extended beyond the commercial. Research showed that the Monday after the Super Bowl is one of the biggest “call in sick” days of the year—a prime moment for hydration. Liquid I.V. leaned into that insight with workplace sampling programs and even helped establish a “National Rehydration Day.”
The result was a campaign connected to real behavior, not just clever creative.
Also Read: Part 4: The Future of Marketing Isn’t Smarter Tools — It’s Smaller Human Teams
Manscaped Makes an Unforgettable First Impression
For Manscaped, the Super Bowl was less about driving immediate sales and more about building national recognition.
Chief Marketing Officer Marcelo Kertesz was blunt: despite rapid growth, “we’re still not famous.”
The brand’s debut spot leaned into humor and emotion, personifying discarded hair as a loyal pet experiencing loss. Absurd, yes—but memorable. It also helped reposition Manscaped as a broader grooming brand rather than a single-product novelty.
In a cluttered ad environment, personality proved to be the differentiator.
Why the Real Work Happens Long Before Kickoff
In a panel at AdWeek House, marketing leaders from Mars and Diageo emphasized a point often missed by viewers: Super Bowl success is determined months—sometimes years—in advance.
The game-day commercial is only one piece of a much larger system that includes data analysis, retail strategy, experiential activations and online engagement.
As one executive put it, the spot gets attention. Everything else drives results.
Also Read: Part 3: Authority, Not Attention, Wins in 2026
The Common Thread
Across every session and campaign, a single theme emerged. The most effective Super Bowl advertisers did not simply shout louder—they thought deeper.
Whether it was Lowe’s meeting gamers where they play, the NFL broadening fandom, Liquid I.V. owning the day after the game, or Manscaped telling a story people would actually remember, each approach started with genuine consumer insight.
The era of winning the Super Bowl with a clever joke alone is over.
What matters now is connected thinking—linking culture, context and creativity into strategies that live well beyond 30 seconds.
And with Super Bowl LXI already on the horizon, the playbook is only getting smarter.
