Twitter Next’s Ryan Oliver Discusses Trends Leading Up to the Big Game

Ryan Oliver, senior director of brand strategy team Twitter Next, shared some thoughts with Adweek on trends the social network is seeing in the runup to Super Bowl LV. Tweets about National Football League games were up 27% this season, with impressions rising 63%, and Oliver sand brands were already getting involved in conversations about the Big Game as the league’s playoffs ran their course. “Super Bowl ads are a reflection of the life we’re living at this particular time,” Oliver said. “We anticipate that a lot of brands are going to opt to keep things light, given the heaviness we saw in 2020.” A big topic of discussion on Twitter has been the news that traditional advertisers, such as Budweiser (just the flagship brand, not Anheuser-Busch overall), Coca-Cola and Kia are sitting out the game. Meanwhile, a host of newcomers to Big Game ads includes Chipotle, DoorDash, Fiverr, Huggies, Indeed, Mercari, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Vroom. “Even though brands aren’t necessarily participating and spending the millions of dollars on a television commercial, nearly every brand would like to be part of that Super Bowl conversation” Oliver said. “They’re turning to Twitter to do that.” He also pointed to the use of “nostalgia, a throwback to pop culture and old-time favorites” from many brands, as well as the increased presence throughout the season of fantasy and gambling platforms DraftKings and FanDuel, which have been “blitzing the airwaves and digital platforms.” As for brands’ plans on Twitter itself, the game within the game was a recurring theme. One thing that continued to pop up was games,” Oliver said. “We are seeing brands planning to create games on Twitter alone or create certain types of games based on what’s happening during the game itself and bring it to Twitter.” Examples include: Frank’s RedHot and retired Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning will pour a life-sized bottle of sauce on influencer David Dobrik if they top 100,000 mentions on Twitter. https://twitter.com/FranksRedHot/status/1353848135928451076 Pepsi, which is involved in Super Sunday in a big way with its sponsorship of the halftime show, will run prediction contests on the social network, where fans can guess the number of backup dancers and performers, as an example.Rocket Mortgage is bringing its version of the Super Bowl box pool to Twitter in the form of the Rocket Mortgage Squares Game. https://twitter.com/RocketMortgage/status/1350155805123895298 Oliver shared some other upcoming examples from brands that did not want to reveal their participation at the time of this post: A major apparel brand is crafting a giveaway of a certain amount of money toward its apparel if and when specific players do specific things during the course of the game.A major beer brand will auction off autographed artwork once the game concludes.A major beverage brand is running its twist on guessing the number of items in a certain container, for prizes.If the score ever reaches 3-14, for pi, a frozen pizza brand will give away free pizza to people who sign up on Twitter. “Some advertisers are going to choose to tap into some cause related campaigns,” Oliver said. “A lot of people out there are more in tune with their desire to make the world a better place.” As examples, Chipotle is donating $1 from every delivery order on Super Bowl Sunday to the National Young Farmers Coalition, while Verizon is donating funds to small and midsized businesses. Finally, there was much talk on Twitter about a matchup that did not end up coming to fruition: The “State Farm Bowl.” Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers are a constant presence on television screens with their appearances in multiple spots for the insurance giant, but while Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs will take the field for Super Bowl LV, Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers fell short, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game. For all the latest Super Bowl advertising news—who’s in, who’s out, teasers, full ads and more—check out Adweek’s Super Bowl 2021 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories about the Big Game. And join us on the evening of Feb. 7 for the best in-game coverage of the commercials anywhere.