Streaming-Only Super Bowl Commercials Open New Tier for Marketers With Fewer Dollars for Big Game
While other Super Bowl sponsors like Instacart, Pringles and Bud Light will trot out famous faces like Ben Stiller, Sabrina Carpetner and Post Malone, Tecovas will do nothing of the sort.
Instead, the small leather-apparel company will run a commercial that has already streamed frequently on YouTube and other media venues. Hiring a celebrity wouldn’t feel authentic, says Krista Dalton, the company’s chief marketing officer. “We don’t put boots on feet that don’t want to wear them,” she says during an interview, and the commercial, which shows a young boy exploring the west with real cowboys making appearances, has generated results. “We do not believe we’ve reached anywhere near the saturation rate for this ad to feel like, oh, we’ve seen this a million times before. We think a lot of new eyeballs are going to see it.”
Tecovas’ commercial won’t appear on NBC during its February 8 telecast of the Big Game, which will show the Seattle Seahawks squire off against the New England Patriots — but it’s a Super Bowl commercial all the same.
With more people cutting their connections to traditional TV and moving to streaming video, some of the nation’s biggest media companies see a chance to make extra money. NBC has sold a bunch of streaming-only ads that will appear on Peacock during its simulcast of Super Bowl LX. The spots, which typically turn up in ad time reserved for local stations, will be seen by a smaller, but younger audience than the one tuned in to the TV network. That gives NBCUniversal the chance to seek in the neighborhood of $3 million for a 30-second ad, according to a person familiar with the matter. And there’s more: Like Super Bowl TV ads, streaming-only commercials require a “match,” or potentially another $3 million, for other pieces of NBC ad inventory.
Streaming gives Tecovas a chance to step into an arena that would typically be impossible to enter. NBC has sought between $7 million and $10 million for a 30-second TV ad in this year’s game, which Dalton says is simply out of Tecovas’ range. “I think I’d have some questions to answer for quite a few people if I spent that much over budget,” she says.
Streaming-only Super Bowl ads aren’t new. The financial-services firm Ally ran one on Paramount+ during the 2024 Super Bowl that aired on CBS. Both Fox and NBCUniversal have offered them in the past, according to two people familiar with the matter. But the offering is starting to gain more traction, with some advertisers acting as if their commercials will be seen by the TV millions.
WK Kellogg’s Raisin Bran has enlisted actor William Shatner to tout its high fiber cereal. E.L.F. Cosmetics enlisted Melissa McCarthy in a spot that evokes the soapy feel of Spanish-language “telenovelas.” Oikos will run a streaming-only spot with Kathryn Hahn.
The Super Bowl has long stood as a bastion of mass marketing; it’s hard to think of another media vehicle that gives an advertiser a stage in front of so many potential customers. In recent years, however, more marketers have tried to use the Big Game to reach smaller niche crowds, harnessing new technology and paying more attention to the fact that interactive media like streaming allows for the placement of ads according to geography or knowledge of consumer likes and dislikes.
“The Big Game has evolved from a singular broadcast opportunity into a multi-screen ecosystem, and our strategy reflects the shift in how modern audiences, especially younger generations, are consuming the game,” says. Doug VanDeVelde, WK Kellogg Co’s chief growth officer. The company’s Peacock buy, he adds, can help gain significant attention for a more reasonable price.
More piecemeal placement may be in the works. Within Disney, there is fervent hope the company can find a way to use its various properties to offer versions of the Super Bowl telecast that are tailored to different audiences, which could include sports die-hards or kids and families. Such experimentation has already surfaced. In 2024, for example, advertisers were able to place Super Bowl ads that ran only on Univision, which had the rights to air the game in Spanish. Others relied on ads that appeared only on kids-cable favorite Nickelodeon, which ran a telecast aimed at families. Some were able to place ads only on the version that streamed on Paramount+. Many, of course, chose the widely distributed original telecast on CBS.
The rise of streaming gives some Madison Avenue mavens the chance to do in bigger fashion what they’ve done quietly for years: Use less expensive means to get in front of the Super Bowl audience. For years, advertisers ranging from Sam Adams and Heineken to American Family Insurance and Procter & Gamble to the Church of Scientology have snatched up local ad time available on various stations tied to the network airing the Super Bowl. To the average Super Bowl viewer attending a party or snacking on buffalo wings, the differences are hard to discern. And yet, the cost of the ad buy is millions of dollars less than a commercial appearing in national time. Streaming changes the dynamic somewhat by giving the advertiser a chance to appear to viewers all across the U.S,, not just those in specific regions.
Oikos, the yogurt made by Danone, ran commercials in the traditional TV Super Bowl for six years. For it’s seventh, the company will run a celebrity-studded ad – Kathryn Hahn and football player Derrick Henry — only on Peacock. Doing so “helps us reach a younger audience,” says Victoria Badiola, senior vice president of Oikos Danone U.S. “Gen Z and Millennials are looking for viewing experiences that are more mobile, more on demand, more flexible.”
E.L.F. sees the streaming spot as “an important test and learn moment for us,” says Kory Marchisotto, the company’s chief marketing officer. The cosmetics brand’s hopes to stand out are as big as any Super Bowl TV advertiser, with a spot that was inspired by a monologue by Bad Bunny on the debut of this season’s run of “Saturday Night Live,” when he told the audience they had four months to learn Spanish before he appeared in the Super Bowl halftime show. ELF shot the ad with McCarthy just a week ago, says Marchisotto, and McCarthy provided enough material for something even more ambitious.,
“At the end of the day, I looked at the director, and I said, ‘I think we just shot a 30-minute movie,’” she recalls. “Not a 30-second commercial.”
Streaming-only ads may reach just a portion of the Super Bowl audience, but they have become significant enough to capture the attention of a very important viewer: the NFL. The league scrutinizes the streaming ads for elements that might offend audiences, just as it does with the TV pitches. “You still go through the same stuff,” says Marchisotto. “We had to go through a lot of gates.”
Instead, the small leather-apparel company will run a commercial that has already streamed frequently on YouTube and other media venues. Hiring a celebrity wouldn’t feel authentic, says Krista Dalton, the company’s chief marketing officer. “We don’t put boots on feet that don’t want to wear them,” she says during an interview, and the commercial, which shows a young boy exploring the west with real cowboys making appearances, has generated results. “We do not believe we’ve reached anywhere near the saturation rate for this ad to feel like, oh, we’ve seen this a million times before. We think a lot of new eyeballs are going to see it.”
Tecovas’ commercial won’t appear on NBC during its February 8 telecast of the Big Game, which will show the Seattle Seahawks squire off against the New England Patriots — but it’s a Super Bowl commercial all the same.
With more people cutting their connections to traditional TV and moving to streaming video, some of the nation’s biggest media companies see a chance to make extra money. NBC has sold a bunch of streaming-only ads that will appear on Peacock during its simulcast of Super Bowl LX. The spots, which typically turn up in ad time reserved for local stations, will be seen by a smaller, but younger audience than the one tuned in to the TV network. That gives NBCUniversal the chance to seek in the neighborhood of $3 million for a 30-second ad, according to a person familiar with the matter. And there’s more: Like Super Bowl TV ads, streaming-only commercials require a “match,” or potentially another $3 million, for other pieces of NBC ad inventory.
Streaming gives Tecovas a chance to step into an arena that would typically be impossible to enter. NBC has sought between $7 million and $10 million for a 30-second TV ad in this year’s game, which Dalton says is simply out of Tecovas’ range. “I think I’d have some questions to answer for quite a few people if I spent that much over budget,” she says.
Streaming-only Super Bowl ads aren’t new. The financial-services firm Ally ran one on Paramount+ during the 2024 Super Bowl that aired on CBS. Both Fox and NBCUniversal have offered them in the past, according to two people familiar with the matter. But the offering is starting to gain more traction, with some advertisers acting as if their commercials will be seen by the TV millions.
WK Kellogg’s Raisin Bran has enlisted actor William Shatner to tout its high fiber cereal. E.L.F. Cosmetics enlisted Melissa McCarthy in a spot that evokes the soapy feel of Spanish-language “telenovelas.” Oikos will run a streaming-only spot with Kathryn Hahn.
The Super Bowl has long stood as a bastion of mass marketing; it’s hard to think of another media vehicle that gives an advertiser a stage in front of so many potential customers. In recent years, however, more marketers have tried to use the Big Game to reach smaller niche crowds, harnessing new technology and paying more attention to the fact that interactive media like streaming allows for the placement of ads according to geography or knowledge of consumer likes and dislikes.
“The Big Game has evolved from a singular broadcast opportunity into a multi-screen ecosystem, and our strategy reflects the shift in how modern audiences, especially younger generations, are consuming the game,” says. Doug VanDeVelde, WK Kellogg Co’s chief growth officer. The company’s Peacock buy, he adds, can help gain significant attention for a more reasonable price.
More piecemeal placement may be in the works. Within Disney, there is fervent hope the company can find a way to use its various properties to offer versions of the Super Bowl telecast that are tailored to different audiences, which could include sports die-hards or kids and families. Such experimentation has already surfaced. In 2024, for example, advertisers were able to place Super Bowl ads that ran only on Univision, which had the rights to air the game in Spanish. Others relied on ads that appeared only on kids-cable favorite Nickelodeon, which ran a telecast aimed at families. Some were able to place ads only on the version that streamed on Paramount+. Many, of course, chose the widely distributed original telecast on CBS.
The rise of streaming gives some Madison Avenue mavens the chance to do in bigger fashion what they’ve done quietly for years: Use less expensive means to get in front of the Super Bowl audience. For years, advertisers ranging from Sam Adams and Heineken to American Family Insurance and Procter & Gamble to the Church of Scientology have snatched up local ad time available on various stations tied to the network airing the Super Bowl. To the average Super Bowl viewer attending a party or snacking on buffalo wings, the differences are hard to discern. And yet, the cost of the ad buy is millions of dollars less than a commercial appearing in national time. Streaming changes the dynamic somewhat by giving the advertiser a chance to appear to viewers all across the U.S,, not just those in specific regions.
Oikos, the yogurt made by Danone, ran commercials in the traditional TV Super Bowl for six years. For it’s seventh, the company will run a celebrity-studded ad – Kathryn Hahn and football player Derrick Henry — only on Peacock. Doing so “helps us reach a younger audience,” says Victoria Badiola, senior vice president of Oikos Danone U.S. “Gen Z and Millennials are looking for viewing experiences that are more mobile, more on demand, more flexible.”
E.L.F. sees the streaming spot as “an important test and learn moment for us,” says Kory Marchisotto, the company’s chief marketing officer. The cosmetics brand’s hopes to stand out are as big as any Super Bowl TV advertiser, with a spot that was inspired by a monologue by Bad Bunny on the debut of this season’s run of “Saturday Night Live,” when he told the audience they had four months to learn Spanish before he appeared in the Super Bowl halftime show. ELF shot the ad with McCarthy just a week ago, says Marchisotto, and McCarthy provided enough material for something even more ambitious.,
“At the end of the day, I looked at the director, and I said, ‘I think we just shot a 30-minute movie,’” she recalls. “Not a 30-second commercial.”
Streaming-only ads may reach just a portion of the Super Bowl audience, but they have become significant enough to capture the attention of a very important viewer: the NFL. The league scrutinizes the streaming ads for elements that might offend audiences, just as it does with the TV pitches. “You still go through the same stuff,” says Marchisotto. “We had to go through a lot of gates.”