What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
Download the guide to:
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
Download the guide to:
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
Key Insights From Our Research
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
Get the Complete Whitepaper
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
Get the Slides
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
It’s impossible not to follow Super Bowl ads anymore. They long ago entered the cultural mainstream and now arguably help define culture, at least during the frenzied run-up to the Big Game and immediately afterward. Everyone in your social orbit can cite at least one Super Bowl ad that has taken up residence in their headspace, even those (increasingly rare) souls who don’t care about the game itself. The ads matter, not just for their entertainment value, but for what they reveal about how brands connect with audiences beyond sporting events.
And how those ads have changed.
Early Super Bowl commercials were simple, direct product messages that reflected mainstream TV advertising of their time. They weren’t designed as cultural moments or entertainment events. Today, they’ve evolved in some very significant ways that brands can learn from.
The Super Bowl Is No Longer the Only Moment
For decades, the Super Bowl ad was a 30-second bet placed on a single night. You either landed it or you didn’t. That framing has quietly collapsed. Many of the most talked-about ads surface days before kickoff. Some are released in full online. Others appear as teasers, extended cuts, or social-first versions designed to circulate long before the game airs.
For example, Kinder Bueno’s 2026 “Yes Bueno” campaign debuted online ahead of the game and tied its sci-fi creative to a sweepstakes that runs well past Super Bowl Sunday. The ad is only one part of a broader cadence designed to keep the brand visible for weeks, not seconds.
The result is that the Super Bowl now functions less like a moment and more like a season. The broadcast still matters, but it’s just one spike in a longer arc of attention that includes pre-game discovery, real-time reaction, and post-game replay.
Lessons for brands: Think in arcs, not moments. Big cultural events are most powerful when they anchor a sequence of interactions rather than carry the full weight themselves. Brands can design campaigns that unfold over time and reward early discovery.
Creators Are Formats, Not Cameos
Celebrity cameos used to be a shortcut to memorability. But creator partnerships can do more by bringing a familiar format that audiences already recognize and trust.
Salesforce’s 2026 collaboration with MrBeast is fresh because it’s not a traditional Super Bowl ad. It uses the challenge-and-contest format that defines MrBeast’s work, built around participation, stakes, and audience trust. That kind of structure is rare on the Super Bowl stage, which has historically favored polished, scripted spots.
Salesforce isn’t trying to explain enterprise software in 30 seconds. It’s entering a trusted space where attention is already earned, using that credibility to reach younger, future decision-makers on their terms.
Lessons for brands: The format matters as much as the partner. When a brand steps into a trusted creator-led structure instead of forcing a traditional ad, it gains credibility that can’t be bought through production value alone.
Ads Are Becoming Interactive, Not Just Watchable
The Super Bowl is still television at its core, but the most forward-looking campaigns treat the ad as an invitation rather than a finished product.
Uber Eats’ 2026 campaign illustrates this clearly. Instead of releasing a single definitive cut, the brand let users build their own version of the Super Bowl commercial inside the app by selecting different celebrity combinations. The result is something people can play with, personalize, and share, rather than simply watch once.
That’s a meaningful departure from earlier eras when success was measured by how well an ad played on a big screen. Today, effectiveness increasingly depends on what people do next.
Lessons for brands: Plan the second step as carefully as the first. When viewers know where to go and why it matters, attention deepens rather than dissipates.
How an Ad Is Made Can Become Part of the Message
One of the quieter themes surrounding Super Bowl 2026 is the attention brands are paying to process. In a moment when generative tools are everywhere, several advertisers are being explicit about emphasizing human-led production, live performance, or traditional craftsmanship.
This isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. Brands recognize that audiences are sensitive to how content comes together, not just what ends up on screen. They are less likely to like an ad if they know it was AI-generated. Creative choices now communicate values as clearly as taglines do.
Lessons for brands: Treat production decisions as storytelling tools. How work is created can reinforce trust and intention when audiences are paying closer attention to authenticity.
Measurement Now Includes Attention and Co-Viewing Realities
Super Bowl advertising has always been judged by buzz, but measurement expectations are tightening around what attention really looks like in a living room. In 2026, Nielsen is piloting an approach designed to more accurately account for co-viewing during the Super Bowl, incorporating additional data sources like its wearables-based panel measurement.
That speaks to a broader evolution: the industry is still chasing mass reach, but it’s also trying to describe it more precisely and credibly.
Lessons for brands: Plan measurement early and be honest about what you can claim. Big moments are still valuable, but the smartest teams connect the excitement to signals they can actually track.
Entertainment Is Table Stakes
Perhaps the most obvious change, and the easiest to underestimate, is that Super Bowl audiences now expect to be entertained. That expectation drives the creative bar up for everyone, including brands that are not “entertainment brands.”
Xfinity’s 2026 Jurassic Park-inspired spot, which reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is built first as a nostalgia hit and only second as a brand message. The entertainment value is the point, and it’s why people will replay it.
Pepsi’s 2026 Super Bowl ad “The Choice” takes a different path but aims for the same outcome: a story hook. Pepsi describes a polar bear discovering a love of Pepsi in a blind taste test.
And Poppi’s commercial leans into pop culture energy with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, framed as an attention-worthy moment in its own right.
Lessons for brands: Respect people’s time and attention. If your message isn’t enjoyable on its own terms, it’s unlikely to travel far. Make the work worth watching even outside of its advertising context. And no, you don’t need a celebrity to entertain.
Where Brand Storytelling Is Headed
Super Bowl ads didn’t become culturally important overnight. They evolved as media fragmented, audiences gained control, and brands learned that attention has to be designed for, not assumed.
That’s why they’re worth studying even if you don’t care about football. They offer a compressed view of where brand storytelling is headed: longer arcs, creator-led formats, participation over passive viewing, and values embedded in execution.
The game may still be the game. But the ads tell a much bigger story. Check them out and tell me what you get out of them.
Ready to earn attention beyond the big moment?
Super Bowl ads are a masterclass in modern storytelling: campaigns built in arcs, shaped by the formats people trust, and designed for what happens after the first view. That same thinking applies whether you are launching during a cultural tentpole or trying to win attention in a “normal” week.
Overdrive helps brands build stories that travel. We combine strategic creative guidance with paid media activation and content optimization so your message reaches the right audience, performs across channels, and keeps working after the first impression. If you are looking to turn your next campaign into a sequence of meaningful touchpoints, we would love to help.
.webp)
What Do Super Bowl Ads Tell Us About Winning Attention?
