Super Bowl and AI—how the tech is shaping brands’ creative and social strategies

As Super Bowl 2024 approaches and brands begin to release their spots, one character is poised to have a role across the board: generative AI. The ad world may not be much closer to using the emerging tech to actually write their Super Bowl ads, but industry experts agree that generative AI was certainly a tool for marketers developing ads. “Every Super Bowl ad will have AI used in its processes,” said Andrew Missingham, executive director of consumer insights at design agency AKQA. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs While some of these platforms were available for Super Bowl 2023, the degree to which brands have adopted them in just the last year makes 2024 a more official coming-out party. The impact that AI can now have at nearly every stage in the development of an ad—from brainstorming to editing—speaks to its undeniable value for marketers. But the Super Bowl is still advertising’s biggest night, and brands are nowhere near ready to risk it all on a spot clumsily generated by ChatGPT. Ad Age’s own tests, while better than last year’s, weren’t exactly award-winning. More likely, marketers could use AI as a theme for their Super Bowl creative, given the technology’s popularity as a cultural phenomenon. And social media, where brands typically engage with the game in real time, could be another hotspot for smaller AI activations. But for the most part, AI has evolved from a marketing stunt to a behind-the-scenes tool, according to Missingham. “What we have now [that didn’t exist last year] are the skills of a prompt writer,” he said, a reference to the emerging role that is required to get the most out of generative AI tools. Read more: How AI would script Super Bowl ads This aptitude lends itself particularly to the early stages of ad development, which typically have fewer constraints than later stages. BBDO, for example, used generative AI to convey Super Bowl ideas to clients, an executive previously told Ad Age. Human creatives handled the maturation of these ideas. VaynerMedia used generative AI to strategize its Super Bowl briefs, said Chief Client Officer Nick Miariits. This work was mainly analytical, such as using ChatGPT to understand creative trends of past Super Bowl ads, as well as how those ads were received by audiences. Since much of this information is available on the internet, ChatGPT can access the data and scrape it for answers. Production is another stage that could see generative AI use, said Miaritis. In particular, ads from automotive brands may have incorporated the technology given their reliance on computer-generated imagery to ease some of the intrinsic labor intensities, he added. Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen and BMW are all airing spots during this year’s game, but there are currently limited details about creative. Volkswagen told Ad Age it did not use AI in its spot. Kia declined a request for comment. Toyota and BMW did not respond to requests for comment. Watch the Super Bowl ad teasers for BMW and Kia here AI as the creative While a helpful force behind the scenes, AI is also a cultural phenomenon—making it a ripe theme for Super Bowl creative. AKQA’s Missingham said ads are “going to [make] nods to it left and right,” on account of its status in pop culture being tantamount to an internet meme. The degree of mainstream curiosity in AI was evident at the end of 2023, when numerous dictionaries selected AI-related terms as their words of the year. The Wikipedia page for ChatGPT was the website’s most-viewed entry last year, netting nearly 50 million visits, and AI was a consistently favorite topic of late-night talk shows like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Fears around AI have cemented its place in the public consciousness. Deepfakes, such as the recent ones of Taylor Swift that spread like wildfire on X, have elicited condemnation from the White House, which issued an executive order on the subject last fall. And the potential of job replacement at the hands of automation is causing anxiety in workers across numerous industries. Brands from Salesforce to Sephora and KitKat have already learned that whether they highlight the good or the bad of AI in their ads, merely giving it a shoutout is likely to catch attention. Dialpad, a customer intelligence company, aired a local ad chock-full of AI references during last year’s game. This year already has a couple of confirmed spots around AI tools. Google is focusing its ad on the AI-powered camera assistant on Pixel 8, which has now been the subject of its last three Super Bowl appearances. Etsy will air an ad highlighting Gift Mode, a service that blends generative AI, machine learning and human curation to surface relevant gifts. The spot does not make any direct mention of AI technology, however. Super Bowl creative always aims to be topical, said Missingham. Cultural touch points such as celebrities, the pandemic and cryptocurrency have manifested heavily in previous Super Bowl advertising. But those looking to call 2024 the “AI Bowl”—as they did the “Crypto Bowl” in 2022—may want to refrain from doing so. The jocular title is a misrepresentation of the staying power that AI will have in society, said Missingham, and differs from the flash-in-the-pan status that many attribute to crypto. Avocados From Mexico is not airing a Super Bowl spot this year, but its marketing stunt is an example of how brands could pair AI with relevant messaging around the game. An online generator from the brand takes inputs from users and creates personalized guacamole recipes, which can be both practical and humorous. AI-generated images of these creations are also provided, increasing the effort’s chances of becoming a moment worth sharing on social media. “Integrating our brand with the cultural trends around us … gives us an opportunity to continue building our brand and growing awareness in a way that excites and engages consumers,” said Alvaro Luque, president and CEO of Avocados From Mexico. The fruit marketer last year had plans to embed its official spot with a QR code linked to ChatGPT, which would generate a tweet for the user, before scrapping the idea. But the QR approach could still make for a viable AI activation for a brand airing an ad during this year’s game, said James Young, executive VP and head of digital production for BBDO, North America. Read: Avocados From Mexico’s AI-generated guacamole recipes There’s always social media While generative AI may not be ready for primetime, brands will likely deploy the technology in social media campaigns around the Super Bowl, according to Amy Luca, head of social at Media.Monks. The agency is working with two brands on commercials for the game. BetOnline, a web-based gambling company, will recreate scenes of Super Bowl 2024 using Midjourney, including AI-generated roster photos for players, images of Allegiant Stadium and portraits of notable “Super Bowl characters” such as Taylor Swift, a spokesperson told Ad Age. It will post these creations on its social accounts leading up to the game. Last year, BetOnline ran an AI-generated beer ad on social media that was intentionally reminiscent of a classic Super Bowl spot. A few others, including email marketing platform Mailchimp and ad agency Giant Spoon, used GPT technology to live-tweet the game. Neither Giant Spoon nor Mailchimp will revive the strategy for Super Bowl 2024, the organizations confirmed with Ad Age. Brands, however, tend to wait until later in February, sometimes just days before the Super Bowl, to announce these efforts, which means this year’s iterations may still be coming. Luca could also see brands this year using AI to help in the background of social media work, such as for creating virtual characters and influencers, writing copy, crafting visuals and supporting audio and voiceover work. “For Super Bowl, it’s not necessarily consumer-facing AI, but Media.Monks uses a lot of AI, gen AI, in our social content production … it’s about how we create content faster and more efficiently for our clients,” she said. Whether or not brands post AI-generated content during the game, fans will almost certainly be doing so. A search on X, formerly Twitter, already yields numerous Super Bowl-themed tweets from amateur AI users. The trend is a testament to how these tools have become popular as both a cultural phenomenon and a mechanism for content creation. Me:“ChatGPT, create an image of a Kansas City Chiefs fan waking up after a restful sleep, sipping on a warm cup of coffee, and enjoying the morning sunrise.They're eagerly anticipating the Super Bowl in two weeks” 😃Go Chiefs!#ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/Xs8RPA3S9H— Trooper Ben (@TrooperBenKHP) January 29, 2024 Contributing: Garett Sloane

Super Bowl and AI—how the tech is shaping brands’ creative and social strategies

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