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.
2025 Newsletter
Hello 2025! In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we would like to share some company updates and creative highlights from Q4 2024. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. Cheers to another great and successful year! We love creating for you.
New Partnerships
This November we announced a partnership with Soundwave Digital. Through this partnership, we will be expanding our offerings to include media planning and programmatic buying. We are excited to work alongside Soundwave Digital to meet our clients’ advertising and marketing needs. Visit our blog page to learn more about this partnership.
Team Spotlight
We had two wonderful Animation & Illustration Sprouts join our team. Meet our interns, Anthony & Laura.
Our internship and co-op opportunities give aspiring creatives an opportunity to collaborate 1-on-1 with a small team on client projects. Anthony and Laura worked closely with our creative team to create a variety of digital experiences for brands such as The Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, and Betty Boop.
Meet Anthony:
Anthony is a talented animator, designer, and storyteller. Polished and whimsical—we are so grateful to Anthony for sharing his complex, thoughtful design POV with us.
“My favorite part about working at Bare Tree Media is the people. Everyone here is incredibly approachable, reliable, and supportive. I was incredibly nervous given that this was my first time doing any sort of remote work, but once I realized that the team was all in it together, I understood exactly why everyone at BTM seems so happy!”
We pride ourselves on providing our interns with a space to create freely and push boundaries. While at Bare Tree, Anthony & Laura worked on a number of personal projects.
“While I found fun in every project I worked on, I’d definitely go with the First Day of Fall social media post. I was looking forward to it for the majority of my time working here. My speciality is 2D, hand-drawn animation, so it was a welcome return to what I love doing the most. Plus, I love compositing animation.”
Check out Anthony’s “First Day of Fall” post on our Instagram page!
Meet Laura:
Laura is a talented illustrator from the Greater Boston area. She would describe her design style as playful and bold with a handmade quality.
“Each project I have worked on came with their own set of challenges from which I was able to grow. Working on digital sticker packs was very enjoyable for me. It was a lot of fun working with seasonal designs (i.e., Betty Boop: Merry & Bright) and creating assets to accompany the main images.”
Laura also created an Election Day post for our social media channels and her own personal sticker pack entitled “Bagel Buddies.”
“For my PSP, I was inspired by daily life…bagels are always in my kitchen! Throughout this project I liked having the ability to experiment with different techniques and learn new animation skills. I’m happy to have been able to bring my own concept to life!”
To start the storyboarding process, Laura thought about various bagel puns. Once her expression sheet was completed, she sketched out imagery for each bagel and refined the illustrations based on feedback she received from our creative team. Adding another level of interaction and engagement, Laura animated her stickers in After Effects.
“This experience [working at Bare Tree Media] has provided me with an enjoyable work environment and has inspired me to continue growing my skills in animation and graphic design. My growth would not have been possible without members of the team being so willing to help me learn and giving me constructive feedback.”
Laura’s sticker pack will be on the Apple and Samsung Galaxy stores soon!
#TEAMWIMPY
We’ve been working with author Jeff Kinney and Wimpy Kid, INC. for 5+ years to bring fans of the best-selling book series unique digital offerings. As previously announced, our team will now create mobile messaging stickers and phone themes to help promote “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” To learn more about the partnership, check out our blog page.
Our Social Media Coordinator, Emily, worked with the Wimpy Kid, INC. social media team to create a reel to promote DOAWK’s first sticker pack: “Team Wimpy.” This reel featured our stickers in action on iMessage and included iconic moments, quotes, and characters from the series. This collaboration amassed over 4,000 likes and 100,000 views on Instagram.
“Team Wimpy” is now available on the Apple & Samsung Galaxy stores.
Our team attended the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess Tour” kickoff event in Plainville, MA. We love supporting our local partners. A reel Jackie created was shown at the pre-show! We’re so happy audience members got to experience our DOAWK digital offerings.
The Wild Robot
Our team had the opportunity to create rotoscope stickers for NBC Universal’s newest movie, “The Wild Robot.” These GIFs effectively capture the essence of the movie and promote it in a visually engaging and shareable way. We loved seeing Instagram users utilize our stickers on promotional posts and stories.
In October, our team watched the movie together. Great work, NBC Universal—it was a tearjerker!
Keep Calm & Tweet On
Our animators have been hard at work creating custom likes and branded hashtags for brands. These limited-time campaigns increase engagement for brands looking to market events and promotions on X. Check out some of our favorites below:
World Gold Council
Netflix: Paul .v. Tyson
Mountain Dew: Baja Blast
DraftKings
Traveling Around Town
Bob Ferrari (CEO) and Jackie Karnoff (Creative Manager) flew to Los Angeles to meet with our West Coast clients. We love catching up and brainstorming with our partners in person! Follow us on social media to receive updates about our new partnerships.
We also attended the annual Ad Club Media Innovation Day in Boston, MA. By auctioning off our creative services, we were able to support the local advertising community and Ad Club’s first-generation scholarship/internship program. Find our takeaways from the event on our blog page.
Motion Graphics Meet Marketing: Enhancing Brand Storytelling
To survive in the modern digital landscape, brands need to cut through the noise and capture the limited (very limited) attention of their audiences.
“Content is King”—the phrase followed by marketers around the world. However, most social media feeds are inundated with articles, advertisements, and social posts. While content is important, quality (over quantity) is king.
Incorporating motion graphics into marketing materials are a powerful way for brands to enhance their content strategies and reach potential customers. As a motion graphics studio, we may be a little biased, but our experiences creating super-slick promotional videos for brands (i.e., Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Interwell Health) have shown us first-hand the power of motion in marketing.
So why motion graphics? Read more below to find out.
What are Motion Graphics?
Motion design animates 2D/3D graphics using software to create a visual narrative. The technique emerged in the mid-20th century and is credited for transforming graphic design. Common examples include TV opening credits, digital adverts, news broadcasts, and explainer videos.
A Rise in Video Content
The number of digital video viewers worldwide is currently 3.3 billion (HubSpot). According to an article published by HubSpot, about 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands they love. With video accessible on every major social media network, audiences use short-form videos (~60 seconds) to learn more about a brand, product, or service. Video marketing increases brand visibility and engagement as consumers are 52% more likely to share video content than any other type of content.
Aside from increasing engagement, motion graphics can benefit brands in three ways:
- Simplify a concept, product, or service
- Easily shareable
- Efficient & cost-effective
Explainer Videos & Motion Graphics
According to HubSpot, the most common videos that incorporate motion graphics are presentations (65%), ads (57%), and explainers (47%).
Explainer videos convey concepts, products, and services in a quick, clear, and concise way. Motion graphics used in these videos capture attention more easily than text. For example, Hank Green’s YouTube series “Crash Course” utilizes motion graphics to break down educational concepts in an entertaining, digestible way for students. The series has over 161.M subscribers on YouTube and is used in classrooms throughout the country.
Furthermore, explainer videos can introduce people to new-to-market products and services that may contain complicated features. Customers can make better-informed purchasing decisions, and in turn, conversion rates may increase. The onboarding experience for customers becomes more efficient, which can reduce customer support costs.
Motion Graphics & Virality
Motion design, like most video content, is inherently shareable. Marketers utilize video to generate organic growth across social media platforms. Videos containing motion graphics are more likely to go viral because they are visually engaging and perceived as higher quality by viewers.
In this 30 second advertisement, Porsche takes viewers through the evolution of the automobile and how their vehicles are integral to the automotive industry. Brands like Porsche use motion graphics not just to sell a product but to invoke a feeling and share an aspirational lifestyle.
Efficiency & Cost-Effectiveness
While engagement is important, the success of a marketing campaign is measured against return on investment (ROI). Traditional, live-action film shoots are expensive and carry greater risk than animated video. Because motion designers work in programs with highly-flexible capabilities, adjusting animations is a fairly simple, low-cost process.
Future of Motion Graphics
Video content will continue to evolve to fit new consumer needs, platforms, and trends. It is important to note that social media algorithms largely control what’s shown on a given platform. Short-form, motion graphic and explainer videos may be capturing the attention of millions now but algorithm shifts may change what kind of content becomes popular in the future.
How We Play a Role
Our experienced designers, animators, and editors work with brands to leverage motion graphics in their marketing and advertising campaigns. We’ve created campaigns for IFAW, BetMGM, and Samsung.
- To promote the new messaging stickers and Samsung Themes we created for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” we teamed up with WimpyKid Inc. in 2024 to create a digital offerings promotional video. The “Hot Mess” book tour kicked off in October and our video was featured before the show at every stop and on their social media account.
- At Bare Tree Media, we love using our design and animation skills to raise awareness for important causes. We collaborated with the Healthy Ocean Coalition (HOC) to create an animated explainer video that outlined the importance of protecting our oceans, mitigating climate change, and improving access and distribution to nature around the United States.
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.