The Super Bowl? More Like the "Advertising Bowl"
On February 09, 2025, households around the world will be tuning in to watch the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs battle for the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 59.
The Super Bowl is the biggest stage for not just athletes but for advertisers. Last year, 123.4 million viewers watched the Super Bowl, making it one of the most-watched television broadcasts ever (NFL). Brands spend months (and lots of money) to produce and market clever, star-studded commercials—Super Bowl LIX will be no different.
Super Bowl commercials are an important cornerstone of American popular culture. Apple announced its Macintosh personal computer in an ad inspired by George Orwell’s 1984; Michael Bublé teamed up with Bubly for a fun sketch about name mispronunciations; even the most outlandish of commercials, Mountain Dew’s “Puppy Monkey Baby,” had viewers repeating its catchy jingle months after the commercial’s launch.
Social Media & Super Bowl Advertising
With the rise of social media and influencer marketing, brands can now strategically connect with audiences beyond the television on the night of the big game. Social media acts as an amplifier in three ways: it boosts brand engagement & awareness, increases the reach and impact of brand campaigns, and presents unique opportunities for social listening and trendspotting.
Nerds generated brand awareness and buzz for their Super Bowl ad campaign by sharing teasers of their commercial featuring TikTok star, Addison Rae. Watch below to see how Nerds tapped into nostalgia and influencer marketing to attract candy lovers of all ages.
@addisonre Guess who I’m coaching…?! 🪩🕺🕺🎶🍬 tune in to find out!! @Nerds Candy 2.11 #ad
♬ original sound - Addison Rae
Brands featured during the commercial break spend, on average, $7 million for a single, 30-second ad spot on television. For brands with a smaller advertising budget, social media opens up the playing field. Everyone now has the opportunity to participate in the global conversation, while reaching both new and existing audiences. Brands with “social-first” marketing strategies are expected to reap the most benefits.
How We Play A Role
With our creative marketing solutions, brands can be part of the Super Bowl conversation using interactive ad formats across social media platforms.
Video Editing - Lay's & Doritos Game Day Contest
In a previous blog post published to our page, we shared that about 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands they love (Hubspot). Video continues to evolve as an impactful marketing medium for companies—especially when it incorporates motion graphics.
Videos promoting sweepstakes, giveaways, and other exclusive promotional events can boost audience growth rate/participation, drive sales, and encourage user-generated content (UGC) across social media platforms.
As part of their Super Bowl 2025 campaigns, Lay’s and Doritos ran two sweepstakes on X. Users who interacted with the posts and trigger hashtags (i.e., #OnlyLays, #DoritosCrash) were eligible for cash prizes that were announced on Super Bowl Sunday. Our team of skilled video editors put together two short promotional graphics videos for Lay’s and Doritos to bring awareness to these giveaways. These videos used animation and text elements to showcase the clients’ products along with simple instructions for entry. Contest participants then received one of our videos revealing their fate!
Custom Likes & Hashmojis - DraftKings, Pepsi, & Doritos
Hashtag campaigns are a popular way for brands to generate buzz and drive post engagement. For example, according to a report by Captiv8, the hashtag #SuperBowlLVII accumulated more than 225 million views on TikTok in 2023.
Custom likes and hashmojis are custom visuals brands attach to a limited-edition hashtag campaign on X. Custom likes replace the standard heart animation (triggered when a user ‘likes’ a post) with the branded animation, while hashmojis are static emojis featured at the end of a hashtag.
For the upcoming Super Bowl, we created a custom like and hashmoji for DraftKings to promote Super Bowl parlays and sports betting. With the hashtag #LetDKCook, X users could trigger the animation and design on their posts.
As an exclusive design partner for X (formerly known as Twitter), our team partnered with Pepsi in 2022 to promote the Super Bowl LVI Halftime show featuring Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Eminem. Any user engaging with the hashtag #PepsiHalftime on the day of Super Bowl LVI triggered our custom animation—the Pepsi logo inside of a music record!

In 2023, our designers and animators also created a custom like and hashmoji for Doritos’ “Triangle Scheme” Super Bowl LVII campaign. Our design was even featured in the Super Bowl commercial. It was truly amazing to witness how many X users engaged with our branded likes throughout the game!

Augmented Reality (AR) - KIA Robo Dog
In recent years, brands have turned to Snapchat for immersive, personalized ad campaigns perfect for the night of “the big game.” According to Snapchat, Super Bowl campaigns that contain a lens result in 1.5x increased ad awareness. Through unique activations such as “Super Bowl Winner Prediction” lenses, the #TouchdownCelebration challenge, and custom Cameo stickers, Snapchatters and their favorite brands can connect with one another.
TikTok has also become a destination for advertisers to reach Generation Z Super Bowl watchers. Brands are tapping into influencers and celebrities when delivering creative and disruptive short-form advertisements. The Addison Rae, Nerds collaboration on TikTok linked earlier in this article is a perfect example.
“Advertisers that are doing it well know that watching football isn’t just on the TV—it’s with the memes, social conversations, and opinions in real time through TikTok” – Shayne Millington, McCann New York
KIA introduced Robo Dog to the world in their 2022 Super Bowl commercial for their new electric EV6 vehicle. Bare Tree Media was thrilled and honored to have created a 3D model and TikTok AR experience to accompany KIA’s #fullycharged campaign.
Our TikTok integration invited users of the app to dance with Robo Dog, an electrically-charged dog, to Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. This effect was launched a week before the Super Bowl in conjunction with a 60-second Super Bowl advertisement and a “dogmented reality” experience. The dogmented reality experience simulates pet adoption virtually and entices users to consider adopting an animal in need from their local shelter.
@melissabecraft #ad Kia has given to the PetFinder Foundation to help find forever homes for dogs. I’m showing my support by doing the #RoboDog #turnaround
Looking Ahead to Super Bowl LIX
Social media has and will continue to perform well in conjunction with traditional Super Bowl advertising. Ultimately, the most important play in your marketing playbook is sharing quality content that is on-brand, attention-grabbing, and influencer-driven. As we look ahead to Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, expect to see:
- Interactive content: AR lenses and gamified content will continue to skyrocket in popularity. Other interactive content such as custom likes, hashmojis, and social media challenges require engagement and participation by a viewer.
- Influencer-first campaigns: brands will partner with micro and macro influencers with highly-engaged audiences across social media platforms—particularly, TikTok and Instagram.
With the right combination of experience, skill, and guidance, your brand can use design, animation, motion graphics, and AR to better engage and captivate the attention of your customers. To learn more about how we can be a part of your Super Bowl marketing, contact us at info@baretreemedia.com or visit our website.
Interested in something unique for your brand? Reach out to our team!
Bare Tree Media is a full-service creative studio and digital publisher creating super slick, mobile-facing content! We would love to bring your brand’s ideas to life through digital animation and AR. Check out our Animation & Video page to see motion graphic experiences we’ve created for brands.
BTM x Soundwave Digital Partnership Announced
Boston, MA – October 31, 2024 — Bare Tree Media is pleased to announce its expansion into media planning and programmatic buying under a partnership with Soundwave Digital. Advertisers across entertainment, sports, and CPG sectors have consistently chosen Bare Tree Media as their creative studio of choice because of the company’s reputation for high quality creative design, video editing, animation, and augmented reality services.
“Leveraging Soundwave Digital’s proprietary technology, Amplifi™, we will continue to create great content plus now have the ability plan, buy, optimize and report across various media channels such as CTV, Online Video, Social, Display, Native, Audio, Digital Out of Home and more.” — Bob Ferrari, president of Bare Tree Media
For many years, Bare Tree Media has been servicing valued clients across a number of industries. With this partnership, the creative studio can now work with clients across the full life cycle of creation, execution, and optimization for dynamic campaigns and successful brand initiatives. Leveraging their team’s existing capabilities, Bare Tree Media will work alongside Soundwave digital to revolutionize the media buying experience for brands.
“Soundwave excels by combining managed services, in-house expertise and AI technology, to fine-tune advertising strategies and maximize the impact of marketing efforts. We are very excited to bring on Bare Tree Media as an agency partner given their exceptional creative abilities and vast network of clients.” — Neil Kuchins, Chief Revenue Officer & co-founder of Soundwave Digital
Keep an eye out on Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn for exciting projects related to this new venture.
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About Soundwave Digital
Soundwave Digital provides programmatic advertising, amplified by in-house, A.I. powered audience modeling and advanced automation. The company creates strategies that employ easy, automated media buying optimized for a brand’s specific business needs. Soundwave Digital works with a variety of entertainment and sporting brands including, but not limited to, the Baltimore Orioles, the UCLA Bruins, MGM Resorts, and Vizio.