Brand Partnerships Stealing Spotlight One Commercial At A Time

Of all the advertisers who spent upwards of $7 million for 30-second slices of our attention last night during the Super Bowl, the ones who caught my marketing eye the most were those who found a friend to help cover the cost.

GM partnered with Netflix to have Will Ferrell hype electric vehicles within the streaming service’s shows, Heineken and Ant-Man worked together to promote non-alcoholic beer and the upcoming Marvel film, Michelob Ultra and Netflix collaborated on a beer commercial featuring Netflix’s new golf show Full Swing, and Molson Coors took advantage of finally being allowed a Super Bowl spotlight by partnering with DraftKings in an ad that, prior to airing, had accumulated almost a quarter-million entries on the betting site predicting how the commercial would play out.

Leading up to the game, Marketing Brew asked its readers if they thought branded partnerships would become more popular this year, and 65% said yes.

There’s no i in “team” or in “brand partners,” and last night sure seemed to confirm the teamwork trend continuing in 2023.

Apple TV+ — let me know when you’re ready to discuss that Marketing Manager / Ted Lasso collaboration.