As we well know, the Super Bowl is so much more than just the game itself; the half time show and the movie trailers and ads shown in the breaks are often as much of a draw. A 30 second spot this year cost anything between $8-10 million so only for those advertisers with big budgets to play with.
It's likely over 135 million people tuned in last night to watch the game, half time show and ads, but this year many movie studios decided that the NFL game was not the place to launch their summer movie marketing campaign. This could be cost related, or perhaps marketers have found more efficient ways of getting their messaging out.
Marvel was completely absent, with Disney passing on promoting Avengers: Doomsday and Sony following suit for Spiderman Brand New Day. Disney did lean in a little bit elsewhere with a mostly seen before trailer for Hoppers and a, giving nothing away, trailor for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Fans hoping to see more of Toy Story 5 though were left disappointed, although Woody did appear in a new Levi’s ad that paid homage to many pop-culture denim moments.
Many of the other big releases also had little new to show, trailers for Scream 7, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Girl recut mainly already seen footage, leaving fans underwhelmed.
Some movies though did make the Super Bowl a big moment with Disclosure Day, Minions & Monsters and Project Hail Mary all going with traditional full trailers packed with new footage to excite fans.
And Hollywood star power was also present in lots of other Super Bowl ads, showing how the power of well known IP, across film, TV and music can help create impactful marketing moments.
Here are our picks for the best Super Bowl trailers ads from this past weekend:
What’s Your Favourite Pokemon?
Disclosure Day
Good Will Dunkin’
Minions & Monsters
Chris Hemsworth and Alexa+
Bradley Cooper & Matthew McConnahay x Uber Eats
Project Hail Mary
Ken x Expedia
Jurassic Park x Xfinity
Will Shat Here for Raisin Bran
Levi’s Back Story