Anyone who poured every ounce of their time and energy into creating something for the Super Bowl this year wants to hear that the work was seen and that it landed. It’s true – The Big Game is a big deal for brands who invest in ads and programming. Every year it’s chaos. It takes over your life for months. And I feel lucky to have been part of it for 19 years.
This year, I was on the ground in New Orleans and had a front-row seat to PepsiCo Foods’ activations I helped create. In the spirit of Monday morning quarterbacking, here are a few lessons learned.
Give Control to the Creators
Great marketing isn’t about control—it’s about trust. The best Super Bowl campaigns tap into the creativity of both the team behind them and the audience engaging with them. Trusting the fans means involving them through campaigns they participate in or conversations you let them shape. You might be afraid you’ll lose control of the narrative, but the payoff is work that feels authentic and relevant.
Doritos Crash the Super Bowl is a prime example. After the campaign sat on the bench for nearly a decade, we decided to bring it back to celebrate Doritos' 25th Super Bowl commercial. When you’ve been doing something this high-profile for 25 years, the challenge is to keep coming back with the same level of creativity and inspiration.
That’s where our fans come in. Crash the Super Bowl has always been built on the premise – and risk – of giving control to creators. We have gotten comfortable with that. But what has really changed during the decade we sat this out is the rise of creator culture and massive improvements in tech. Now everyone owns a ring light and anyone with a phone can shoot a studio-caliber video.
I discovered an unexpected bonus this time around – stars of the creator culture are also good at content marketing. Fans who want their commercial selected for Crash the Super Bowl will spend months posting content on their channels, which sustains our own campaign and increases visibility. For example, our winning creators for ‘Abduction’ – co-directors and best friends Dylan Bradshaw and Nate Norell – created some stellar social content, drumming up excitement and encouraging fans to vote. The lesson I learned about turning over content creation to fans is to get comfortable with giving up control because the benefits are worth it.
“Your Best Friend’s Parents” Test
It’s fun if industry friends talk about your work. Even better if your best friend mentions your ad. But my test is my best friend’s parents. If they bring up an ad I’ve worked on, that’s a win. It means the ad broke through into the real world—it’s not just marketing insiders talking to each other. Sometimes in this industry we fall into chasing industry awards or defending cool creative that doesn’t connect beyond the bubble.
Ground yourself in the real world by picturing someone you actually know – not a persona, who is outside your target demographic and outside our industry. Will THAT person talk about your creative days after it runs? Will they share it? You can buy a view, you can buy a like, but you can’t buy a comment or a share. When someone shares something to their network, it immediately has more value to it than just if it was sponsored in their feed.
Here’s an example. We hosted a Tostitos® Cantina at New Orlean’s St. Roch Market during the Super Bowl where we challenged local up-and-coming chefs and restaurateurs to work Tostitos Tex-Mex flavors Tostitos chips into their menus. We want to get fans and foodies talking but this should also pass the Best Friend’s Mom test. If she thinks it’s too high concept, so might people in our target demo.
Share Some Joy
People expect to smile during the Super Bowl (unless their team’s losing). Giving them that joy builds goodwill and cuts through the noise.
Yesterday, Lay’s marked its return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2022 with “The Little Farmer,” directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi. This year’s spot celebrates the hard work and dedication of the many multi-generational farming families who proudly produce Lay's potatoes, with some even featured at the end of the commercial.
While ‘The Little Farmer’ is a fictional story, it’s inspired by a real-life farming family. This passion for creating potatoes perfectly suited one of the biggest storytelling moments for the Lay’s brand.
The best ads are the ones that everyone talks about -- ideally long after Game Day. It gives them a way to interact with the brand and bonus points if it makes people literally smile. These are how a spot becomes part of people’s lives, not just another ad.
If you played any role in any creative for Super Bowl LIX, congrats. Every year, our industry transforms the mere hint of an idea into that handful of 30-second spots that make us laugh or cry or just feel seen and that we remember long after the confetti falls on the field. And if you’re like me, you learn something new from this every single year.
