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.
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.
Winter 2024 Newsletter
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday season. Our team members have been hard at work this year creating digital experiences for brands and clients across the world. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. We look forward to creating more for you in 2024.
Team Spotlight - Phoebe (Feeb) Om
Meet our Animation & Illustration Sprout, Phoebe (Feeb)! Feeb is a co-op student from Northeastern University. Starting this Summer, Feeb worked with our licensing, illustration, and animation teams to design messaging stickers, illustrated videos, GIFs, and Samsung themes.
“The team was definitely my favorite part of working at Bare Tree Media! I’ve mostly worked on animation and design projects by myself. It was awesome to bounce ideas off other people, get feedback from them, and see a large project come together through the efforts of multiple people. For example, for the Healthy Ocean Coalition animated video, it was so much fun creating assets of sea creatures and bringing them to life. My teammates taught me a lot about animating in After Effects from my team members, so it was a really valuable experience.”
We love watching our interns and co-ops grow, get creative, and produce work they are proud of. Over the last few months, Feeb has been working on her “personal project,” entitled “Bunny and Cat are Girlfriends.” This sticker pack is available for Samsung and Apple devices and can also be found on GIPHY & Tenor.
“I loved creating really goofy, meme-like stickers. I thought about what kinds of stickers my friends and I would like to send to each other, and I got to make it real! They ended up being very silly as a result… I hope lots of people will have fun using them!”
Licensing Announcement
Bare Tree Media is now the official digital licensing partner for Paramount and its global franchises. Our team is so excited to create and publish everything from Samsung themes to messaging stickers for iconic brands such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Garfield, Spongebob Squarepants, Rugrats, and many more. Thank you to the teams at Paramount, Apple, Samsung, and Quidd for their support. We look forward to continuing our work with you all in 2024. For more information about this partnership, click here.
Movie Magic
Step into a world of pure imagination! Our illustration and design teams had the opportunity to design and animate illustrated and rotoscope stickers for the Wonka movie, featuring Timothée Chalamet. Thank you to our Art Director, Jackie Karnoff, for taking the lead on this project. We’d also like to shout out Katie Rose, Chihiro, and Julia for all their hard work and talent. This project had us all reliving our childhoods! These stickers are available for free on What’s App and GIPHY.
Our illustration and design teams designed animated GIFs for Hollywood’s latest fantasy/sci-fi movie, Poor Things. Thank you to Searchlight Pictures for trusting us with this project. Check them out on GIPHY.
We love rotoscope stickers. Our team created stickers for two of Warner Bros latest films: The Color Purple & Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Thank you to our Art Director, Jackie Karnoff, for spearheading these projects. The Color Purple and Aquaman GIFs can be found on GIPHY!
Eye on AR
Our AR and social media teams have been working together to showcase our company’s AR skills. Check out our Instagram and TikTok to see all the different effects we’ve created internally and for brands. We’ve made effects for a variety of industries including, but not limited to, entertainment, sports, and beauty. In need of something unique for your brand? Check out our website baretreemedia.com to learn more about us and our AR team’s capabilities.
Our team loves being a part of the MetaSpark community. During MetaConnect 2023, our AR manager, Vedika Bhasin, had the wonderful opportunity to join other AR creators in sharing what they love about MetaSpark and what new features they look forward to exploring in the future. Click here to watch the full clip.
Creations & Causes
At Bare Tree Media, we love to work with companies who want to use art to make our world a better place. This past 2023, our team had the pleasure of working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Healthy Ocean Coalition (HOC) to produce animated informational videos that raised awareness for important environmental causes. These projects were a full team effort—we loved the challenge of storyboarding, designing, and animating these videos. We look forward to working on similar projects in the future.
Summer 2023 Newsletter
Happy end of Summer and Hello Fall! In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the Summer. Our team members have been hard at work creating digital experiences for brands and clients across the world. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. We look forward to creating more work for you all this Fall.
Company Reel 2023
Our 2023 Company Reel is here! See all the exciting projects we’ve been working on and clients we’ve been working with over the last few months. In need of something unique for your brand? Check out our website baretreemedia.com to learn more about us and our team’s capabilities. We create everything from AR effects to animated messaging stickers to illustrated videographics. A big thank you to our Creative Manager, Jackie, for putting together this Company Reel.
Team Spotlight - Julia Feldman
Meet our Animation & Illustration Sprout, Julia! Julia is a co-op student from Northeastern University. Over the last 8 months, Julia worked closely with our illustration, licensing, and animation teams to execute messaging stickers, GIFs, illustrated videos, and Samsung themes. She has worked on a number of projects including Wonka and IFAW and has created GIFs for our social media pages. We love to challenge our interns and co-ops to push themselves outside their creative comfort zones. Over the last few months, Julia has been working on designing her own animated sticker pack “The Goose,” which is available for Samsung and Apple devices and can also be found on GIPHY & Tenor.
“I loved going through the whole process of designing a character, coming up with expressions, illustrating, animating, and creating metadata and promotional materials. I learned so much about design and animation through this process and really appreciated all the support and critique given by my team members along the way.”
As Julia’s co-op comes to an end, we would like to thank her for all her hard work—she has been a fabulous addition to our team. We have loved watching her grow and develop her own artistic POV. We will miss her positive energy and cannot wait to see what the future has in store for her.
Licensing Expo 2023
Our CEO, Bob Ferrari, and Licensing Manager, Sonya Priest, took a trip out to Sin City for the annual Licensing Expo. We loved catching up with our existing brand partners, learning from industry leaders, and securing some new licenses. We will be announcing some new and exciting partnerships soon! Follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up to date.
Branded Likes
Branded likes….we’ve missed you! There’s nothing we love more than these interactive animations. If you are a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, our senior animator, Alexa, designed this X branded like for the new TMNT Movie. With the trigger hashtag #TMNTMovie, X users could activate this slimy surprise for 24hrs. Great work, Alexa!
Eye on AR
Our AR team has been using their knowledge of all things emerging tech to help brands give their followers immersive digital experiences. For the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, we partnered with Whalar to design a TikTok effect to be featured on the festival floor. It was so fun seeing how many creatives and attendees interacted with our effect. This project was a team effort and lots of fun to demo in the office.
“Rainbow Beach Disco” was also part of a larger Pride Month initiative. Pride celebrates unity, community, and self-expression. We love designing effects that create togetherness and encourage people to be themselves. Click here to try “Rainbow Beach Disco” and check out our TikTok to see our Cannes recap.
Spring 2023 Newsletter
In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the Spring. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
Team Spotlight - Naomi Eberle
Our AR Technical Consultant & Snap Lens Ambassador, Naomi Eberle, spoke at Snap Inc.’s Partner Summit alongside Ambassadors, Sallia Goldstein & Mohamed Sorkatti. The three of them delivered an informative lecture on navigating SnapAR’s ecosystem and how brands can leverage its technologies to develop immersive, creative AR experiences. We are so proud of Naomi and cannot wait to hear her share her expertise at future guest lectures!
Lens Fest Extended
BTM x SnapAR in NYC! We held our 3rd Augmented Reality Meetup, “Lens Fest Extended,” at the Snap Inc. offices in New York City. We had such a great turnout and enjoyed connecting with many members of the AR community. Our guest speaker, Maya Pruitt, gave a great presentation on machine learning (ML) models! In the coming months, we are looking forward to hosting more AR events both in Boston and New York City. Follow us on social media to stay updated on the
latest news regarding these meetups.
PAX East & TikTok Creative Partner Day
Our team members have been busy the past 2 months attending different networking events around the country. We’ve enjoyed flexing our creative muscles, learning more about up-and-coming technology in the gaming and AR spaces, and of course, networking with other creative marketing partners.
We checked out the latest in all things gaming at the PAX East and GDC gaming conferences. It was great to discuss with other avid gamers and brands ways to build immersive experiences within gaming platforms, social AR, and the metaverse.
As one of the creative partners for TikTok, our AR team had the honor of designing the Effect House AR experience for TikTok Creative Partner Day in LA. This Effect House experience had a catch…the special effects are activated by a series of mystery gestures. We love creating interactive experiences that keep our audiences engaged!
Adopt a Shelter Pet
Last year for #NationalAdoptaShelterPetDay, our AR team designed a Snapchat lens pet owners could use on their own pets. This year, our AR team made this effect available for TikTok. Check out our Snapchat and our TikTok to try it out on your own furry friend today! Remember: Adopt Don’t Shop!
How to Bring Some Fun to Your Video Calls
As we adjust to a new normal, video conference calls have become the number one way to get some quality face time with co-workers, clients, and loved ones. If you’ve been like us, you’ve been spending a majority of the time in these calls and want to break up the monotony with a bit fun! Using Snapchat’s desktop app Snap Camera or simple videos, you can add exciting backgrounds and AR effects to your video feed.
How to Add Videos to Zoom
Adding fun videos to Zoom calls is super easy! Once you are in a Zoom Meeting, in the bottom left corner of the window, you will see a ‘Start Video’ button. Click on the up arrow to the right of the icon and select ‘Choose Virtual Background.’
This will bring you to your video settings within Zoom. You will see five default videos from Zoom that you can try out. But if you want something special hit that plus button to the right and choose ‘Add Video.’ A finder window will open up where you can navigate to any mp4 video file you have on your computer.
And that’s it! You should now have a fun video playing in the background!
If you’d like to use our enchanted forest video background you can download it right below by hitting the download button. Then right click on the video, hit ‘Save Video As,’ and choose where you would like to save the video onto your computer.
How to Use AR Lenses
If you’d like to get a little fancier, you can use Snap Camera to add a wide variety of AR effects to some of the most popular video call apps including Google Hangouts, Skype, Twitch and more! Unfortunately Snap Camera doesn’t currently work on Zoom with the latest macOS (though they are working to fix this!) but if you are on a Windows computer you can follow the instructions below for Zoom as well.
- Install Snap Camera: You can download Snap Camera to your computer here. Once it downloads, double click and follow the instructions to install the application. Snap Camera will automatically open and show a wide range of suggested lenses. Click on any effect to try it out!
- Update your Video Settings: Once you have Snap Camera setup, open up your video call app of choice and go to the video settings. There you should see a dropdown to select which webcam you would like to use and select ‘Snap Camera’. If you don’t see ‘Snap Camera’ listed you may need to restart both applications or your computer for Snap Camera to appear on the list of options.
- Choose & Have Fun: After Snap Camera is selected as the video source, you can pick any AR effect you would like within Snap Camera and it will update in your video call. Try out our enchanted forest effect by searching ‘Enchanted Forest’ or search ‘Bare Tree Media’ to see all of our Snapchat effects!
Interested in having your own custom AR effect or video background created? 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 Augmented Reality page to see branded experiences we created for TikTok, Snapchat, & Instagram.