First-time Super Bowl advertisers look to tackle stiff competition

There’s a first time for everything, including Super Bowl ads.

This year, more than half a dozen brands that have never before advertised in the game, including Häagen-Dazs, Instacart, and Duracell, are preparing for their freshman appearances on advertising’s biggest (and priciest) stage. For many brands, the decision to shell out as much as $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime is rooted in a desire to level up big campaigns or break into the US market, in addition to driving sales and boosting awareness. The stakes are high: first-time advertisers have to help their brands stand out amid the noise, not the least of which is the clomping of the Budweiser Clydesdales’s hooves.

“There are brands that have created precedent and are consistently entertaining, and brands that consumers are looking for time and time again,” said Alison McCoy, VP of brand marketing at NerdWallet, which is running its first Super Bowl ad this year. “Ultimately, I do think that while you might have to work a little harder to stand out as a newcomer, people are excited to hear from the brands that they use in their day-to-day life.”

Remember the (brand) name

Every marketer strives to have people remember their brand, but that’s easier for some Super Bowl advertisers than it is for others. Super Bowl regulars like Budweiser and Doritos have already built up an association with the game, Pedr Howard, head of creative excellence at the market research firm Ipsos, said.

“The biggest by far challenge for these new brands is making people remember who they are, not just remember the ad,” he said.

For its first year in the game, toilet-paper brand Angel Soft is planning to grab people’s attention by encouraging them to look away, offering up its airtime as a bathroom break complete with a countdown clock, according to Laura Knebusch, VP of marketing at Angel Soft parent Georgia-Pacific.

“It’s not like we’re trying to come into the Super Bowl and compete with the most big-budget creative,” she said. “We feel that it is very unique in what we’re bringing.”

Bosch, a German home appliance company running its first Super Bowl ad amid a push into its US business, is planning a funny campaign that “we hope that our customers, our fans, will talk about and share,” CMO Boris Dolkhani said. MSC Cruises is also advertising in the Super Bowl for the first time as it rolls out its “first ship designed specifically for North American guests” and opens a new terminal in Miami, and it is tapping into the star power of Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom for its spot, Suzanne Salas, EVP of marketing, e-commerce, and sales, told us in an email. Duracell, another brand new to the big game, is working on something “very unexpected and fun” that’s aimed at keeping its brand front and center, CMO Ramon Velutini said.

For some marketers, like Elizabell Marquez, CMO at Häagen-Dazs parent company Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, and Laura Petruccelli, co-founder and CCO of Häagen-Dazs’ agency nice&frank, being a first-time brand comes with a certain edge.

“Sometimes, when you are a historic Super Bowl brand, you actually start to get a bit formulaic,” Petruccelli said. For the ice cream company’s spot, Häagen-Dazs partnered up with Vin Diesel and the Fast and Furious franchise.

The longest yard

Marketers hoping to stand out during their rookie year often get an early start planning their campaigns, which was a surprising challenge to some.

“I think the Super Bowl creative strategy has evolved so much over the years,” McCoy said. “It was once one great 30-second commercial, one great 60-second commercial, and now it is…almost like a theatrical performance.”

Bosch started its Super Bowl process about two years ago, needing time to find an American agency to help the brand resonate with US audiences, Dolkhani said. The Angel Soft team started its Super Bowl process early in the fall, but “we probably should have started three months” before that, Knebusch said.

The runway to the Super Bowl can be even longer for marketers who want to build up at least some brand awareness before taking to advertising’s biggest stage. NerdWallet spent several years running national TV ads before its big-game debut to familiarize people with the brand, and it aims to “have a deeper conversation and establish a more meaningful connection with consumers” on Super Bowl Sunday, McCoy said.

Similarly, Bosch has worked with US sports teams including the Chicago Cubs, FC Dallas, Carolina Panthers, and Boston Bruins before its Super Bowl debut, and Häagen-Dazs started sports marketing at the tail end of 2022 before turning to the Super Bowl this year to attempt to grow market share further, Marquez told us. Angel Soft’s ad, meanwhile, is part of a years-long brand campaign, according to Knebusch, who said she’s now looking to level it up by “really integrating it into culture” via the Super Bowl.

She’s not the only marketer hoping to do so. Several other first-time Super Bowl advertisers are eager to embed their brands in American culture—a perhaps unsurprising goal considering that research has found that most of the viewers tuning in are excited to watch the ads.

“At the Super Bowl, everyone is seeking out the ads, and they’re very engaged,” Velutini said. “It does bring an opportunity for us to leverage that and potentially have an exposure with consumers that not only is long-lasting, but has higher quality than any other exposure that we’ll get during the year.”