Can’t Afford a Super Bowl Ad? Try These Marketing Alternatives Instead [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 through the huge sport, manufacturers coughed up a cool $7 – $8 million per spot. If that’s not within the funds, listed here are seven Tremendous Bowl advert alternate options that can value you a large number much less.

I’ve additionally bought examples of massive manufacturers with notably inventive alternate options to Tremendous Bowl advertisements, plus recommendations on utilizing Tremendous Bowl advertising methods in your personal <$7 mil campaigns.

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What Massive Manufacturers Do As an alternative 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 guardian firm, donated cash towards COVID vaccine efforts.

Right here’s how two manufacturers will probably be celebrating this 12 months’s huge sport with out an official advert spot, an honorable point out, and one iconic various advert:

Perdue Rooster: Wingin’ It

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

Captain Morgan: Rum Avenue

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

Besides that this 12 months, Captain Morgan is popping bourbon into rum with its Rum Street activation. The stay 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 — but it surely was solely 5 seconds lengthy.

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

Duolingo called it a technical danger: “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 attainable to ship a push notification to 4 million learners in 5 seconds with out crashing our app.”

It was, they usually did. It’s price noting that the owl app only took the risk as a result of it had finished a number 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 wish 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 could have woke up your inside theater child, but it surely was nonetheless fairly costly. And, as a small- to medium-sized enterprise marketer, you seemingly cannot afford a Broadway manufacturing.

So, what do you do if you do not have tens of millions in your funds just like the manufacturers above?

Beneath, I‘ll checklist seven promoting methods that manufacturers use through 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 correct audiences — social media plays a predictably huge role in advertising.

Twitter was once a primary spot for Tremendous Bowl-adjacent advertisements, with its personal Brand Bowl roundup of greatest model tweets. However because it remodeled from Twitter to X, advertisers are spending considerably much less cash there — 50% less, according 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 noted that brands were ditching X and placing that cash into different social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

If you are going to buy a more budget-friendly skippable ad 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 methods to attract consideration, similar to presenting a relatable ache level, providing a worth proposition, or putting viewers into an action-filled scene when the video begins enjoying.

For those who want extra inspiration, right here’s some fan-favorite ads (and some marketing lessons) from Super Bowl 2024.

2. Dive deeper with a video narrative.

Tremendous Bowl advertisements typically really feel like miniature motion pictures. Reasonably than establishing a primary 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 the way Apple’s model, modern merchandise, and mission would free laptop customers from the monopolies of previous tech giants.

Though Apple had extra assets than the typical small biz, all it takes to create an attention-grabbing narrative advert is a few creative team members and affordable video equipment.

Fascinated by crafting a compelling commercial script? Take a look at this template. When you’ve got an amazing concept however aren’t positive the place to start out production-wise, learn this step-by-step guide.

3. Leverage main occasions or holidays.

Main cultural occasions just like the Tremendous Bowl or the Oscars are marketing campaign alternatives for giant manufacturers, who instantly have the eye of an unlimited viewers — not simply through 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 embrace weblog posts about how an occasion pertains to your trade, social media posts that leverage topical hashtags, or a advertising video about how your clients may be celebrating an occasion.

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

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This capitalizes on the #SuperBowl hashtag, which will probably be seen by tens of millions 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 enable manufacturers to make use of the occasion identify “with industrial intent.”

One among our previous masters in marketing, Hassan S. Ali, has some creative ideas 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 assets — to create a single piece of content material that highlights all of the manufacturers concerned.

For this advert, Newcastle pooled its money with 37 other brands to purchase a Tremendous Bowl advert slot, which they appropriately titled “Band of Manufacturers”:

5. Think about influencer advertising.

Apart from high-budget productions and gripping narratives, Tremendous Bowl commercials are additionally recognized for his or her star-studded casts. Keep in mind this Amazon Echo industrial the place Alexa is voiced by a handful of well-liked celebrities?

Though you in all probability cannot rent stars like Cardi B, you may need funds for a micro-influencer who’s credible and extremely adopted in your trade.

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

An influencer advertising technique may also be especially effective on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.

In this example, the smartphone sport “Run Round” sponsored a TikTok person who’s gained more than 15,000 followers just by recording herself enjoying cellular video games. The model recognized that gaming-oriented audiences had been on TikTok and sponsored an influencer whose viewers anticipates her cellular sport critiques and demonstrations.

6. Use counter-programming.

Positive, greater than 100 million folks within the U.S. will probably be watching the large sport, however one other 200 some million received’t be. In case your viewers is among the many latter, you will 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 could show you how 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. Think about digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH).

Steve Nicklin, senior vice chairman of selling and analytics for the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, argues in a recent blog post that “DOOH provides 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 sport:

“After all Tremendous Bowl advertisements 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 bolster key messages and leverage huge sport moments.”

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