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Every year, the advertising and branded-content landscape surrounding the Super Bowl is a feeding frenzy to attract consumers attention. Brands in this year’s big game reportedly spent $7 million for a 30-second spot, making the price of an ad on Super Bowl 56 the most expensive game to advertise on to date.
Across all advertising and branded content, Super Bowl 56 provided some iconic brand moments such as Coinbase’s floating QR code, which arguably was one of the most ingenious and simplistic ads seen in years. Beyond just savvy commercials, brands like Kia America went so far as to take their Robo Dog commercial and turn it into 10,000 of the brand’s first-ever NFTs.
There was no shortage of creative campaigns displayed in this year’s game. However, the underdog winner in this year’s Super Bowl were livestreamed concerts. The power of music cut through the noise, even in an environment as competitive as the Big Game. Beyond the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, which featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent, the day was filled with virtual concerts.
Prior to the game, TikTok partnered with the NFL for their second annual virtual tailgate which featured The Chainsmokers. Additionally, during between the first and second quarter, Lil Dicky partnered with Gopuff to put on the first-ever “Quartertime Show,” which was streamed live via Lil Dicky’s socials.
For fans who wanted to experience even more music after the Rams’ historic win, Meta provided a one-of-a-kind virtual concert experience with Foo Fighters. With so many livestream concert experiences for viewers to have experienced from the comfort of their own home, here are some lessons brand marketers can learn from the success of these virtual concerts.
Live performances are becoming more engaging than promotional advertisements
Pepsi used to be one of the Super Bowl’s biggest ad spenders. For context, in 2020’s Super Bowl, PepsiCo spent $39 million on three minutes’ worth of advertising. Yet, for the last two years, Pepsi has opted to take their marketing budget away from traditional advertising slots and invest it fully in their sponsorship of the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Their bet on concerts paid off big, particularly in this latest show. The Halftime Show, according to Samba TV, drew in an audience of over 29 million U.S. households, a viewership increase of 19% from 2021’s performance. This continued investment in the music element of the game shows just how powerful virtual concerts can be to reaching your targeted consumer.
Lasting intimacy between artists and fans at scale
After the game, Meta gave Super Bowl viewers at home an after party for the ages, bringing Foo Fighters to Instagram, Facebook and Horizon Ventures, the company’s social VR app. The 10-song, 46-minute set, also featured a virtual lobby where users could meet up with friends and other fans before, during and after the show. The Horizon Ventures app even gave VR headset users access to Horizon Worlds, where people 18 and over in the U.S. and Canada were able to virtually attend additional football-themed games and experiences.
This integration of music and technology brought a new level of connection between fans, their friends and the artist. Brands tapping into music for big moments like the Super Bowl will need to continue to push the boundaries of the digital community to closely mimic the community feeling fans experience during physical live events.
Not all platforms livestream equally
As every marketer knows, each platform speaks to a specific demographic. Understanding the details of that demographic and how each platform’s technical capabilities may impact your livestream is critical to create a seamless digital experience. It is no wonder—when you compare The Chainsmokers’ performance on TikTok to Lil Dicky’s streamed on Twitter and YouTube—how different their production strategies were to best accommodate and engage the users of each platform.
When building a livestream event, particularly during a moment as big as the Super Bowl, perfecting the livestream to excel on one platform is much better than pushing a generic livestream that doesn’t fit the mold of the other platforms you are pushing to just for greater exposure.
