One of the biggest marketing winners of the Super Bowl was not one of the 50-plus advertisers paying for commercial time during the game. Rather, it was Rihanna’s beauty line Fenty Beauty and her lingerie brand Savage X Fenty that scored big on Sunday following the singer’s half-time show performance.
Special Report: Super Bowl
How Rihanna’s Fenty was Super Bowl 2023's big marketing winner
Singer’s half-time performance built buzz for both her beauty and lingerie brands
Rihanna applying makeup during the Super Bowl halftime show
Credit:
NFL
Rihanna’s performance, during which she cleverly showcased a Fenty compact mirror, debuted new styles for Savage and announced a pregnancy, was a stroke of marketing genius that potentially built more social buzz for the brands than any in-game advertiser. Many were tweeting about #FentyBowl well into Monday.
Fenty was talked about more than any other brand on social media, according to data released Monday from the social listening site Sprout Social. Fenty’s product placement resulted in 16,432 mentions for over 180,708 engagements and more than 321 million impressions, more than that of Tubi, the topmost advertiser mentioned, which saw 5,546 mentions and 21,094 engagements on Sunday, Sprout found.
Fenty’s mentions also tracked at 86% positive sentiment on Sunday, Sprout reported.
Such buzz was helped by social posts from the singer’s own brands. On TikTok, for example, Fenty Beauty was quick to post the compact-checking clip from Rihanna’s show with the caption, “Y’all wanted a special guest, right?”
Savage X Fenty also blasted its email subscribers early Monday morning, showcasing how consumers can shop the looks featured on Rihanna’s core dancers. “In case you missed it, Savage X Fenty brand visionary and CEO Rihanna just had the most iconic moment on the biggest football stage: The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show,” read the email, which included a link to products. “Don’t miss out on your chance to shop the dancer looks—see below for product details from BTS and halftime show.”
Cosmetic giants Sephora and Ulta Beauty, which both sell Fenty, also leveraged their social clout and email lists to promote Fenty’s new collection.
Though the National Football League is known for not paying its half-time show performers—it instead covers expenses and production costs—the league even gave the brand a boost on Twitter.
The halftime show was sponsored by Apple Music for the first time after the platform took over the rights from Pepsi in September 2022.
