Super Bowl LIX: The Biggest Stage for Brands and Culture

By dentsu Media Sports

With Super Bowl LIX set to light up screens this Sunday, the stakes have never been higher — not just for the teams on the field but for the brands vying for consumer attention.

The Super Bowl has long been the ultimate showcase for advertising; an annual cultural moment that brings together sports, spectacle, and a captive audience of over 100 million viewers. But the dynamics of viewership and engagement are evolving, pushing brands to rethink their strategies.

This year’s game brings several historic firsts. For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will feature a Spanish-language broadcast across multiple networks, with FOX Deportes and Telemundo carrying the game, expanding its reach to a more diverse and engaged audience. Additionally, Super Bowl ad inventory sold out at record speed, with FOX announcing in November that all slots were taken — one of the earliest sell-outs in history. With ad rates up 10% from last year’s $7 million per 30-second spot, brands are wagering big on the power of this singular media moment.

However, the Super Bowl is no longer just a linear television event; it’s an omnichannel experience, with streaming and digital activations playing a critical role in extending audience engagement.

With Tubi airing the game for the first time, digital-first viewing is becoming a mainstream expectation. FOX is estimating roughly 10 million viewers for Tubi’s stream, placing it in the same range as the 2024 Super Bowl stream. If successful, it is likely that Tubi will be integrated into FOX’s broader media plans. This follows Netflix’s major NFL move this season, airing two exclusive Christmas Day games that averaged 26.5 million viewers, making them the most-streamed NFL games in history — demonstrating the increasing dominance of streaming in live sports. With viewers tuning in from 218 countries and territories, streaming is not only expanding audience reach but also diversifying the ways in which brands must approach media buying and campaign execution.

This trend isn’t just about how people watch — it’s about how they engage.

For brands, the continued shift to streaming means thinking beyond traditional :30 ad placements and integrating campaigns into interactive, digital-first experiences. Expect more brands to leverage shoppable ads, AI-powered audience segmentation and platform-specific activations. Those who don’t will risk missing out on a rapidly evolving audience segment.?

While humor remains a dominant theme in Super Bowl advertising, the question for executives is whether it’s still enough to break through. In any given year, around 70% of Super Bowl ads lean into comedy, but in a content-saturated media landscape, the most effective brands will need to pair humor with an optimized strategy. At the same time, food and beverage brands are doubling down on Super Bowl media investments, capitalizing on the Super Bowl’s status as one of the biggest food consumption days of the year.

Americans are expected to consume 1.45 billion chicken wings and 12.5 million pizzas, making this a prime moment for brands like Haagen-Dazs and Totino’s Pizza Rolls, both of whom are making their Super Bowl ad debuts – something to watch out for. Legacy players such as Doritos, Pepsi, and Bud Light will continue to reinforce their presence during the game. As for food and beverages, this is still one of the most valuable real estates in advertising.

?For a preview of how brands are maximizing this moment, look no further than 7-Eleven’s “Emotional Support Pizza” campaign which officially launched on January 24, in partnership with Dentsu Creative US , dentsu X and Tag . Although it’s not airing during the Super Bowl, the campaign skilfully capitalizes on this major cultural moment by transforming a standard BOGO pizza offer into a light-hearted activation for fans whose teams didn’t make it to The Big Game.?

Beyond the ads themselves, and perhaps the most unexpected shift in NFL, is The Taylor Swift Effect – arguably the most influential cultural crossover of all time. Swift’s presence at Chiefs’ games has led to a surge in NFL viewership, particularly among younger, predominantly female audiences. A Chiefs-Jets game she attended earlier this season drew 27 million viewers — NBC’s most-watched Sunday night game since 1995 — despite an overall decline in regular-season viewership.?With her anticipated appearance at the Super Bowl, look forward to real-time brand reactions and social media moments that extend far beyond the sports world.

Then there’s the game itself, which carries its own historic weight. The Kansas City Chiefs stand on the brink of achieving what no team has done before — a three-peat Super Bowl victory. This storyline alone creates a high-stakes moment that brands will look to capitalize on, whether through reactive social storytelling, exclusive brand integrations, premium ad placements, or strategic collaborations.

The brands that take notice of these potentially?viral moments — whether tied to a historic win, a standout commercial, or the highly anticipated halftime show — will not just win the moment but extend their impact, days and weeks following the event.

With all these shifts in viewership habits, cultural influence, and brand strategy, Super Bowl LIX is set to be one of the most significant advertising showcases in recent history. The brands that will win this year won’t just have the funniest or most emotional ad — they’ll be the ones that understand where the consumer is, how they engage, and what moments truly matter. Because for marketers, this isn’t just game day; it’s the biggest stage of the year.

This article includes insights from Jimmy Spano , EVP, dentsu Media Sports.