In 2026, Super Bowl impact is no longer limited to one ad buy, as CTV, digital-first storytelling, and cultural timing open the door to more opportunities.
Totino’s, Skittles, and The Rich Earth Institute show how narrative-led, experience-driven ideas can generate massive cultural reach beyond traditional in-game ad slots.
Waymark leaders point to a shift toward designing for the full Super Bowl ecosystem, where formats built to travel, invite participation, and spark conversation are what drive real impact.
Super Bowl buys need to live beyond one night if a brand is going to win the battle for cultural relevance. So in 2026, brands are using social, digital-first storytelling, and CTV to create Big Game moments with or without paying for a prime spot. The spotlight now rewards ideas, not just airtime, giving brands of any size a way to harness the hype in smarter ways.
“The Super Bowl is still a cultural touchstone. But today it’s really about the entire ecosystem, tapping into channels like CTV, social, digital, and experiential. Brands that think beyond a 30-second buy compete on relevance,” said Hayden Gilmer, VP at Waymark.
That shift is especially clear in how Totino’s approached this year’s ad spend compared with Super Bowl LIX. In 2025, the brand dropped a Big Game spot introducing Chazmo, an alien snack fanatic whose brief screen time blew up online. “People would rewatch the spot and ask for more of Chazmo's universe with videos racking up over 10 million views across Totino’s channels,” Oliver Perez, Business Unit Director for Frozen Snacks at General Mills, told BuzzFeed Business News.
Down to earth: Building on that momentum, Totino’s is skipping a traditional TV spot in 2026 and leaning into digital-first storytelling with Chazmo: The Musical. “If we are going to bring back Chazmo, we know we have to do something out-of-this-world and unexpected. A musical shows his origin story while still embodying Totino’s signature humor,” Perez said.
The move reflects a broader recalibration happening across Super Bowl strategy. The goal is not just to appear during the second quarter, but to give audiences something they want to spend time with before and after the game.
Skittles took a different route but landed at the same destination. Instead of airing a traditional commercial this year, the brand is performing live in a fan’s front yard, starring in-the-flesh Elijah Wood. “Bringing the ad into someone’s front yard transforms it from something people watch into something people experience,” said Gabrielle Wesley, CMO for Mars Snacking North America.
Cultural currency: Together, Totino’s and Skittles illustrate how the Super Bowl economy is changing. Big moments are no longer defined by airtime alone. They are built through narrative momentum and designed to travel across platforms. “A good idea, built for digital and culture, can go far in today’s market. Using the Super Bowl as a starting point gets your name in front of a crowd, but you need to take advantage of the attention,” said Alex Persky-Stern, CEO of Waymark.
Unskippable Skittles: The campaign goes a step further, connecting Skittles’ playful fantasy world with real-world convenience, with Gopuff delivery allowing culture to flow directly into commerce. “Success is not measured in impressions. It is about cultural resonance. One real experience sparks millions of conversations,” Wesley added.
Smaller brands are also finding ways to ride the Super Bowl wave. The Rich Earth Institute partnered with LERMA/ to launch Pee on a Plant ahead of the game, turning the nation’s largest simultaneous toilet flush into a moment for water conservation. “Some of the best Super Bowl ideas in recent years didn’t run during the game. They lived around it. From Newcastle Brown Ale’s “If We Made It,” to Skittles’ “The Broadway Musical,” to Blockbuster’s “Until the Bitter End,” they proved that when you can’t buy your way into the conversation, you have to earn your place in it,” said Paco Conde, Chief Creative Officer at LERMA/.
A good cause: Pee on a Plant shows that even smaller organizations can leverage the Super Bowl’s attention window to create content that’s easy to share and sparks immediate conversation. “We’re treating the Super Bowl not just as a media sports event, but as a cultural moment that naturally connects to our message. Halftime is pee time. Over 120 million people will step away for a quick break. The perfect moment to spark a conversation about the water crisis,” Conde explained.
The throughline across these examples mirrors the fragmentation in sports media insiders have observed more broadly across the industry. “Obsession and creativity always win. In sports especially, where loyalty runs deep and platforms keep multiplying, the brands that stay focused and take creative risks are the ones that break through,” said Tim Scanlan, Vice President of Sports Broadcast at Octagon.
Scanlan described two paths that consistently work. One embeds brands into fan rituals over time. The other moves quickly through digital culture, reacting at the speed of the internet. Both approaches rely on the same principle. “The most committed teams and the most creative brands will always find a way to win that race,” he said.
Persky-Stern agreed, saying what’s changed most in the past few years is how fast brands need to move. “Super Bowl week used to lock creative months in advance. Now brands can respond to culture in days, sometimes hours. That flexibility lets teams test ideas, localize messages, and take creative risks they would never greenlight on one expensive TV buy.”
Even brands that buy Super Bowl airtime increasingly treat the :30 spot as a starting point rather than the finish line. Back in 2019, for example, Pringles used interactive CTV formats to extend its spot into a personalized, shoppable experience, allowing viewers to engage directly through their screens. The execution underscored how CTV can turn a broadcast moment into participation, boosting engagement by 6.4%.
This year, Hellmann’s is using its Super Bowl spot as a springboard to launch extended campaigns with social amplification, influencer partnerships, and long-form storytelling.
For Gilmer, that evolution is now table stakes. “The Super Bowl still anchors the calendar, but the real opportunity is everything around it. The brands that win are designing ideas that live across channels and invite people in.”
So in 2026, alien musicals, front-yard surprises, and plant-friendly stunts all point to the same conclusion. Creativity needs to travel farther than airtime. “There’s a real appetite for storytelling from our world,” Perez said of Totino’s approach. “Even when it gets a little absurd.”
The brands that break through now are not just buying attention for one night. They are earning it by connecting culture and commerce across channels.
