How brands are changing their Big Game strategy, and what marketers can learn from it

By Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle

The Big Game is one of the biggest moments for brands, marketers and the advertising industry at large, and year after year, ads lead the buzz and the conversation around game day. Which ads won over audiences? Which ads had us reaching for our tissues? Which were the most memorable ones? While there are countless lists and subjective ways to look at this, YouTube has one of the most unique perspectives to offer. As the platform where brands share their ads and viewers come to watch their favorite commercials before, during and after the game, YouTube has a pulse on what resonates most with audiences.?

Our teams looked at various signals, including the most viewed ads on the platform on Big Game day, the most searched ads on YouTube, shares, comments, likes, time of upload. For deeper analysis, we leveraged advanced AI text and vision recognition methods to identify and analyze related content around an ad, and more, to learn which ads are successfully breaking through the noise, and what marketers can learn from them.

Here are a few top insights from our analysis:??

1.Creators are changing the game?

Brands have bought into the power of creators, and now that trust is also extending in a bigger way to one of advertising’s biggest moments. Forbes reports that some brands are signing six-figure deals with individual creators for Super Bowl coverage, and brand investment in creator and influencer activations has increased significantly compared to last year, with funds being diverted from traditional TV advertising.

UberEats

For their ad about all the ways football leads to football cravings, UberEats featured Sean Evans eating wings in their ad—a perfect collaboration with the creator who’s become known for his YouTube show where hosts eat chicken wings with spicy sauces. The brand leveraged Sean Evans for additional, surround sound content, including a 101 on Wings.?

Dunkin’

In their star-studded spot that continued the DunKings storyline from last year’s Big Game, the brand included a cameo from YouTube creator Druski, who they also partnered with for additional content.?

Carl's Jr.

Carl’s Jr.’s featured Alix Earle in their Big Game ad, who opens the commercial with a quick nod to her YouTube podcast “HotMess.” With their early promotions, interest in the ad peaked and Carl’s was the #3 most-searched ad on YouTube in the week leading up to the game.?

Poppi

Poppi also leveraged Alix Earle and fellow YouTube creator and podcaster Jake Shane in the brand’s ad.??

eBay

While eBay didn’t have a spot during live broadcast, they made the most of the moment by repromoting their ad on YouTube with one of the most well-known YouTube creators Emma Chamberlain.??

YouTube is the epicenter of culture and our creators bring a perspective fans can’t find anywhere else. The National Football League has completely leaned in to recognize and reward that, and they understand that creators bring in massive audiences they can uniquely reach and engage. This year, the NFL brought 100+ creators to New Orleans to give them a front-row seat to the game, allowing them to bring millions upon millions of their fans closer to the action.?

Most notably, the league brought together some of the biggest YouTube creators in entertainment, sports and culture for its Flag Football Game at the Super Bowl Fan Experience. The captains of the two flag teams iShowSpeed and KaiCenat together have more than 52 million subscribers on YouTube.?

2. Brands that use YouTube to extend their storytelling are seeing big gains

The best ads have always been about great storytelling, and while live broadcast has time limitations, brands that succeed with their audiences use all the tools and tactics at their disposal to deepen their storytelling.??

Only YouTube allows brands to unleash their creativity across long form, Shorts, podcasts, livestreams and more, and engage the communities that have made YouTube the #1 in streaming watchtime in the U.S. for the last two years*.

TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S. and brands that understand that audiences watch content in ways that go beyond the live broadcast approach this moment as a holistic campaign versus a single ad. And that’s resonating a lot with viewers.?

UberEats

For their 2025 spot, UberEats created a months-long series of fun, cinematic videos showing why football is synonymous with food, leading to 20M+ views.?

In the weeks leading up to the game, they shared Shorts, YouTube playlists, teasers and eventually an extended version of their ad, giving their fans a lot more touchpoints for engagement and allowing for deeper immersion into their concept of the big football “conspiracy.”?

Dunkin’?

Dunkin’s Ben Affleck-starring Big Game ads have amassed a big following over the last couple of years, and the brand fueled that fandom this year with a 7-minute version called DunKings 2: The Movie. The video had a 66% view-through rate and average watch time as high as 4 minutes and 32 seconds, showing the kind of engagement with long-form content that only happens on YouTube.??

With all the buzz and excitement they generated with their teaser, the brand was one of the most searched commercials on YouTube in the week leading up to the game.?

Nine out of the Top-10 most viewed brands on Sunday extended their storytelling via teasers, Shorts, livestreams, behind-the-scenes content or longer versions of their ad on YouTube, giving viewers more opportunities to interact with their brand.?

Overall, 66% of the brands that participated in Big Game ads posted teasers, trailers or extended versions of their content to YouTube, showing how brands are adapting to the changing viewership of mass cultural moments.?

3. Earlier is better for winning the Big Game buzz???

In years past, brands considered the Big Game a one-day event, and their ad launch as a surprise “premier.” More and more brands are realizing that the old model doesn’t serve them anymore, and there’s been an increasing trend of releasing teasers, trailers—and even the entire ad—far ahead of the game.?

Big Game ads are a huge investment and in the age of streaming and scrolling, brands can drive excitement, intrigue, capture attention and ultimately—drive connections with their audience for far longer by releasing content early.?

Doritos

Doritos took that to a whole new level by bringing back its Crash the Super Bowl campaign as early as September with a call for creators to submit an ad for the Big Game.?

Only YouTube can provide a platform and technical expertise for brands to execute such an ambitious campaign. "Doritos didn’t want to merely invest in fleeting advertising, and the gTech Ads Data Science Team met their ambition by leveraging state of the art cloud technology and AI to process vast amounts of videos and data that helped the brand organize thousands of video assets and set the judges up for success in personally selecting 25 entries that viewers would find the most compelling,” says Dr. Karima Zmerli, Managing Director of gTech Ads at Google.

Handing over the reins of their biggest ad moment of the year to creators and fans—who got to decide the grand prize winner with their votes—garnered immense fan love, buzz and results for the brand. Doritos was in the Top-10 of the most searched commercials on YouTube, as well as one of the Top-10 most-viewed ad on Game Day, along with amassing 60M+ views on content related to its Big Game ad.??

These results were consistent with even other brands that launched ads early on YouTube.?

Budweiser

Budweiser launched its classic Clydesdales ad on YouTube two weeks ahead of the game, and it was the most searched ad on YouTube in the week leading up to the game**, an indication of the content being extremely sought-after.?

Budweiser’s ad received the most comments and shares across all Big Game ads on YouTube this year.***?

There was no shortage of audience love too, with so many in the YouTube comments section saying they watch the game only for the Budweiser ads. One of the top comments on YouTube sums up the positive sentiment and fan reactions: “Watching super bowl commercials from Budweiser is like getting a Hallmark card AND a hug from someone you love, pure joy!”

Google

Google Pixel's heartwarming "Dream Job" ad also launched a few days before the game, and instantly started gaining buzz and great reviews. On Game Day, the Pixel ad featuring Gemini Live was #3 most-viewed on YouTube. It's also #2 on the list of Big Game ads with the most comments — a sign of how deeply it's resonating. One of the top YouTube comments sums up how a lot of people are feeling about it: "I never thought an AD could make me tear up."?

Hellman’s?

Research shows that 77% of Americans find nostalgic memories reassuring, making nostalgia a powerful cultural force. Big Game ads often tap into this sentiment, blending nostalgia with cultural relevance to engage audiences across generations. Hellmann’s campaign exemplified this approach, reviving an iconic movie scene with a dash of fresh appeal via Sydney Sweeney’s cameo.?

By releasing their ad featuring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, the original cast of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ 10 days ahead on YouTube, Hellmann’s allowed audiences to go down the memory lane and dive deeper into their fandom for the movie.?

The gTech Ads Data Science Team at Google leveraged advanced AI vision recognition and measurement technology to identify a 111% causal lift*** on 'When Harry Met Sally' movie content due to Hellmann's Super Bowl 2025 Ad.?

Only YouTube allows people to discover, explore and immerse themselves into the worlds of related content around an ad, further deepening brand sentiment and facilitating a deeper engagement with the community. This connection can produce a far more memorable experience for viewers and impact brand favorability positively.

On average, YouTube data showed that brands that posted their campaign content 4 weeks before the Big Game, saw an average of 3.5M views, compared to brands posting in the final two weeks, where the average views dropped to 1M+.***

From elections to the Olympics to Coachella and the Big Game, the world's biggest moments play out on YouTube, and there’s a lot for marketers to learn by looking at what rises to the top on the platform. And just like football culture thrives on YouTube before, after and during the Big Game, marketers can also leverage these tactics for their most important campaigns all-year long.

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* Source: Nielsen The Gauge Total Streaming ratings, Feb 2023 - Jan 2025

** Source: Top Searched on YouTube, 2/3 - 2/8

*** Source: YouTube Data, Global, 1/1/25 - 2/11/2025