By David Palmer, Executive Creative Director, Thinkingbox
With all eyes on the TV and let’s be honest, TikTok. Super Bowl commercials have always been the main event.
But this year?
The real show isn’t on the screen.
It’s outside.
Because while the internet argues over “best spot” and “worst spot,” the smartest brands are doing something harder. Something braver. Something real.
They’re showing up in person.
And not in a vague, logo-on-a-step-and-repeat kind of way.
Diageo isn’t treating the Super Bowl like a single media buy. They’re treating it like a cultural footprint.
Across the weekend, they’re activating portfolio-wide — not with one brand shouting louder, but with multiple brands embedding deeper.
Don Julio is leaning into Latino game-day rituals with Ready P’al Show — taquería pop-ups, DJ trolley takeovers, and a social series starring Druski and Young Miko.
It’s not just tequila. It’s tradition. It’s rhythm. It’s community.
Smirnoff is tapping the intersection of sports, fashion, and Gen Z energy — dropping a one-of-one jacket with Aleali May and showing up across key NFL weekend moments.
Not a spot. A statement.
And Captain Morgan? They’re leaning straight into fan culture — mustache-themed challenges, on-site game day experiences, and activations tied to NFL Honors.
It’s playful. It’s physical. It’s participatory.
This is what presence looks like.
And that shift matters.
The Super Bowl used to be a broadcast moment
One screen.
One message.
One shot to leave a mark.
A 30-second flex designed to hit like a cultural gut punch.
The Clydesdales. The frogs. The puppy.
Those weren’t ads. They were events.
They didn’t just interrupt the game — they became part of it.
But the world changed.
Attention got fractured.
Algorithms got greedy.
People got tired.
Now a commercial can be brilliant and still disappear before the fourth quarter even starts. According to Marketing Brew last year, the average unaided awareness among the top 10 performing brands was just 10%. This year, it slipped to 8.5%.
That’s not a creative crisis. It’s a context crisis.
The brands that win now aren’t chasing attention
They’re building presence.
Not impressions.
Not reach.
Not “views.”
Presence.
Because here’s the truth:
A commercial asks for attention.
An experience commands it.
When brands activate around the Super Bowl — the pop-ups, the stunts, the takeovers, the fan moments, the unexpected collisions — it stops being advertising.
It becomes a memory.
And memories don’t get skipped.
They don’t get muted.
They don’t get scrolled past.
This is the new scoreboard: connection
The best brands aren’t trying to be seen.
They’re trying to be felt.
They’re creating moments where people don’t just watch the brand — they step into it.
They live inside it.
They walk away with a story they can’t wait to tell.
Because content isn’t something you manufacture anymore.
It’s something you ignite.
And the people do the rest.
Advertising is getting physical again
For years, everything chased efficiency:
Targeting.
Optimization.
Performance.
Scale.
Clean numbers. Safe bets. Same outcomes.
But culture doesn’t happen in dashboards.
Culture happens in the wild.
In crowds.
In noise.
In the kind of moments that feel too alive to be planned.
That’s what these Super Bowl activations are doing.
They’re putting brands back where they belong.
Not as sponsors.
As participants.
The strongest brands aren’t just running ads.
They’re building environments people want to enter.
They’re creating proof, not promises.
They’re turning belief into something you can touch.
Because in 2026, the most powerful advertising isn’t the loudest.
It’s the most lived.
And this Super Bowl, the biggest brand moments aren’t fighting for airtime.
They’re fighting for something more valuable.
A place in real life.
