Mascot embrace, celeb overload and metatextual advertising: Trends dominating this year’s Super Bowl ads

Ahead of Sunday’s Big Game face-off between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Digiday caught up with marketers and agency creatives to get a sense of what the major trends will be for this year’s crop of ads. (We’ve already covered off on two major trends: marketers playing it safe and leaning on comedic creative this year, as well as more new advertising entrants in the Big Game.) Here’s what to expect this Sunday:

Embracing characters and mascots

There’s been a resurgence of brand characters and mascots in marketing in recent years. Last year, during the college football Pop-Tarts Bowl, the toaster pastry brand introduced the first “edible” mascot to much fervor online. (Earlier this month, Pop-Tarts took its weirdness up a notch with the “edible” mascot holding a sign that read “follow your dreams” as it was lowered into a toaster during the Pop-Tarts Bowl.) Pop-Tarts is not the only brand using this strategy. The success of such brand mascots as Duolingo’s Duo has certainly inspired marketers to take another look at mascots and characters.

“There’s a massive embrace of mascots and characters,” Evan Giordano, strategist at Mother New York, said when asked about the top trends for the Super Bowl this year. Giordano pointed to Instacart’s spot as a prime example. The delivery service uses the mascots and characters of several brands including the Jolly Green Giant, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Chester the Cheetah and the Energizer Bunny in its spot. Totinos, the maker of Pizza Rolls, is also using the Big Game as a vehicle to attempt to make its mascot a household name.

Marketers are looking for more instantly recognizable brand iconography now because they have to contend with a more fragmented digital environment where people “consume culture and content in their own algorithm-fueled microcosms,” explained John Doyle, chief strategy officer at Colle McVoy.

More metatextual advertising

There’s usually a few ads with a metatextual element during the Big Game. For example, last year’s CeraVe spot capped off its integrated campaign — the skincare brand took a breadcrumb approach starting with actor Michael Cera photographed with a ton of CeraVe — with a Super Bowl spot that featured Cera pitching the CeraVe execs on his strange spot.

This year, UberEats is using a similar pitch, capping its celebrity-studded spot with actor Matthew McConaughey pitching director Greta Gerwig on a football food conspiracy film. Dunkin, meanwhile, used its spot during the Grammy Awards as a teaser for the Super Bowl. The teaser featured Ben and Casey Affleck as well as Jeremy Strong in a faux behind-the-scenes of the Super Bowl spot. The aforementioned Instacart ad is another metatextual spot: It features a ton of brand mascots and characters of years’ past.

“We’re still getting meta, an ad within an ad,” said freelance creative director Aisha Hakim. “Does anyone outside advertising remember Puppy Monkey Baby? Or even the Old Spice guy? More than ever we might be talking to ourselves.”

Mani Schlisser, director of strategy at Oberland, agrees. “We’re in such an echo chamber sometimes, just looking at the ad meter or [ad publications] that you forget this is for a fun football game where people come together,” Schlisser said, noting that trying to impress other ad creatives rather than appeal to the general public can be a hazard. “We’re probably becoming more insular as an industry,” Schlisser added.

Celebrity overload

It used to be that advertisers would shell out for a big name or two to be in their Super Bowl ads. Maybe they’d have their mascot with that one big-name celebrity. Now, it seems marketers are spending not just for one or two celebs but for several to make an appearance — no doubt upping the cost of the Super Bowl spot considerably from the nearly $8 million media buy and production costs.

UberEats not only has McConaughey and Gerwig starring in its Super Bowl ad, but the cast also includes Kevin Bacon, Martha Stewart, Charli XCX and even “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans. Pringles has Adam Brody, Nick Offerman and James Harden starring in its ad. Super Bowl advertising newbie cookware brand HexClad has Pete Davidson and Gordon Ramsey. Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom also pop up for new advertiser MSC Cruises. And, of course, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan reprised their roles as Harry and Sally from “When Harry Met Sally” for a Hellmann’s spot at Katz’s Deli that ends with actress Sydney Sweeney delivering the iconic “I’ll have what she’s having” line.

This list isn’t exhaustive. The celeb overload that comes with Super Bowl advertising can be tricky for marketers to balance. Having more celebrities could help a brand stand out to viewers, but often the recall is for the celebrity over the brand, noted Doyle.

“Complementing the celebrity with distinctive brand characters” is a smart play, Doyle added.

Given the rise of the creator economy, it would make sense for more creators to appear in Super Bowl spots, but for another year, celebrities reign supreme for the Big Game. There’s something to be said for classic star power, Tom Murphy, chief creative officer at VML, explained, adding that a star can be a shortcut to the kind of attention and impressions that a brand is hoping for when shelling out for a Super Bowl ad.

“You’re working with someone who already has a persona and means something to people so you’re not building something from scratch,” said Murphy.