The case for and against pre-game Super Bowl ads 

“It’s important to build a really solid 30 days around Super Bowl—if you think about some of it happening before and then how you continue to tell your story after,” said Diane Sayler, senior director of full funnel marketing for salty snacks at Mars Snacking. 

Brands releasing their Super Bowl ads (or teaser versions) weeks ahead of Super Bowl Sunday isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. However, as media becomes more fragmented and ad costs continue to climb, pre-game rollouts may go from a strategy to the strategy. 

Ahead of the Big Game, Digiday has sifted through the arguments for and against marketers dropping their commercials sooner rather than later.

The case for pre-game ads

The costs are a given. Some spots have gone for as much as $10 million. Naturally, marketers want to stretch their creative as long as it’ll go to get the most bang for their buck.

The Super Bowl itself is being broadcast across broadcast and streaming channels, including NBC, Peacock, Hulu, YouTube TV, DirecTV, and NFL+. There’s also the second screen, stretching Super Bowl playbooks across several platforms, including X, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and even owned channels—microsites like Avocados From Mexico’s AI activation called the Prediction Pit. 

Since Pepsi dropped its teaser on Instagram on Jan. 25 and the full spot a few days later, it’s racked up more than 30 million views — and more than $9 million in earned media value on social in four days, according to analysis from Sprout Social. 

By dropping commercials and teasers early, brands can build momentum across the different media channels weeks ahead of the Big Game. That’s especially important for a CPG brand looking to get shoppers to buy products in time for the game. 

“Super Bowl is one of the largest snacking days of the year. So for us, we also use this as an opportunity to bring the campaign to life in-store for consumers,” Sayler said. 

Over the past three years, Super Bowl-related spending has ramped up as early as Feb 1, according to Adobe Analytics. Thus, making the case for advertising early to catch shoppers when they’re ready to buy. The Saturday before the Super Bowl (Feb. 8) is the peak day for grocery shopping, even surpassing Super Bowl Sunday. According to the report, overall grocery spending on this day was 25% higher than the average Saturday in January. 

“It just elevates, from a consideration standpoint, so much of what decisions you’re about to make around the Super Bowl,” said Nick Miaritis, VaynerMedia’s chief client officer, adding “It’s a double edged sword. But if you had to move a lot of product off of a Walmart shelf the week before, it’s a pretty good strategy.”

The case against pre-game ads

The case for pre-game ads has been made, but some marketers are holding out until game day. For example, Liquid I.V. announced its Big Game debut back in December, revealing a teaser on Feb. 2. The full spot, however, won’t air until the first quarter of the game. 

“For us, I feel it strips away a bit of the joy and excitement of Super Bowl Sunday when you’ve seen all the ads in the weeks that precede the actual day,” Stacey Andrade-Wells, CMO at Liquid I.V. told Digiday. 

Grubhub, another Super Bowl first-timer, has taken a slightly different approach. The food delivery brand has touted teasers for the past week, rolling out its full spot on Feb. 2 — a sweet spot, according to Christopher Krautler, director of brand marketing and consumer communications at Grubhub.

Much of the case against pre-game ads center around consumer sentiments. Teasing too much too early without something worth waiting for — a product announcement, change in business practice, or elimination of service fees in Grubhub’s case — could put shoppers off, he said. 

“I feel sometimes dragging it out, it’s just going to start diluting it. We want to really start pushing our communications right when the conversation is starting to go on the upswing,” said Krautler.

Similarly, rolling out the entire ad weeks ahead of the game could dilute the excitement, rendering it less of a Super Bowl ad and more aligned with any other ad. 

“I’m a sucker for not pre airing ads anymore because I think we just have diminished the cachet of seeing it for the first time as a country,” said Miaritis. 

To Miaritis’ point, the Super Bowl is one of the last monocultural moments the U.S. has left, as fragmentation continues to break up the cultural landscape.