Will Ferrell is taking viewers on a joyride this Super Bowl—but he’s sharing the front seat with not one, but two brands, as General Motors teams up with Netflix for an electric vehicle marketing partnership. Similarly, Molson Coors tapped DraftKings for an engagement-boosting betting game and Michelob Ultra will promote Netflix’s golf docuseries as advertisers join forces to rise above their competition during the Feb. 12 game on Fox.

These partnerships are examples of the latest marketing tool that brands are deploying on advertising’s biggest stage, a trend experts expect to intensify.

“This is adding a new character to a story to add a little extra interest and intrigue—it’s a logical way to break through the clutter of yet another Super Bowl commercial by giving it an extra twist,” said Cristel Russell, professor of marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School.

Of course, brand partnerships are nothing new. Movie studio brand tie-ins practically have a standing reservation at the Super Bowl and this year is no exception. Heineken’s ad for its non-alcoholic beer will star Marvel’s Ant-Man, as played by Paul Rudd, for example. Last year’s Super Bowl included an outside-the-box partnership when Rocket Mortgage got together with Mattel to air a Barbie Dreamhouse-themed commercial for its Rocket Homes product.

Yet experts say this year’s influx of Super Bowl partnerships represents a new phase of growth for the trend. Some of that growth could be attributed to the rise in screens—consumers’ attention is now divided between the TV, phones and other devices, which means brands have to raise the bar for attention. In some cases, this means integrating other mediums of communication, like social media.

“This new age that we’re in—I call it transmedia—everything is interwoven, intertextual, and so consumers are on multiple social media platforms, they’re multi-screening,” said Russell. “It just was a matter of time before we saw more of these partnerships that just take people from one brand to another from one platform to another, and associate beer with a game, for example.”

More Super Bowl news

The deals are also happening behind the screen of the Super Bowl this year. E-Trade is planning a wedding-themed spot during the game, according to a teaser the trading company released this week. Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Zaretsky said on a recent episode of Ad Age Remotely that the brand is partnering with several wedding platforms as it courts the next generation of customers. In addition, M&M's, which made headlines for its Super Bowl stunt involving the replacement of its candy mascots by Maya Rudolph, announced that its spokescandies are now involved with other endeavors. Those initiatives involve partnerships with Spotify, Mars Wrigley sibling brand Snickers, Cheddar News and eBay.

Thinking creatively

For Molson Coors, back in the game for the first time in more than three decades after Anheuser-Busch InBev relinquished exclusive alcohol ad rights, this year’s commercial needed to be a standout star. In September, the company reached out to DraftKings, the online betting platform, about a Super Bowl collaboration. In the days leading up to Feb. 12, fans are encouraged to make predictions about Molson’s spot, which will pit Coors Lite against Miller Lite. To play the free-to-play game, users must use a special DraftKings website, and make predictions such as the first beer mentioned in the ad and the type of dog pictured behind the bar for a chance to share in a $500,000 prize pool. 

“We needed to make this moment count,” said Brad Feinberg, VP of media at Molson. “We know consumers bet on the Super Bowl often as is, so we were reinforcing an already existing behavior but through the lens of our brand—that’s never been done before and that will create some opportunity to be disruptive.”

After years of being shut out of the game, Molson has been accustomed to using creativity to  “unlock” the Super Bowl, according to Sofia Colucci, global VP of marketing for Miller brands and economy.

In the first 24 hours of the program’s launch, more than 50,000 consumers made picks—surpassing goals, Colucci said, noting that the brands will use metrics such as PR impressions, brand health sentiment and engagement, as well as sales, in order to measure success. By Wednesday, 80,000 people had signed up, according to a representative.

One challenge for brands looking to team up is making sure to pick the right partner for a collaboration, specifically when it involves the $7 million hefty price tag for a 30-second Super Bowl ad buy. Molson chose DraftKings because it had an existing four-year-plus relationship with the betting service.

Russell said there are three main types of “fit” for marketers when evaluating partnerships. A “semantic” fit is based on meaning and tells a story—for Molson, it makes sense to partner with a betting service because people play games when they drink beer. A “complementary” fit would be a beer brand and a snack brand, for example, as both work together in an experience. Then there are “incongruent” fits, where two dissimilar brands get together to spice up an ad campaign.

“It’s an extension of cross-promotion,” Russell said, adding, “Cross-promotion sounds like an ugly word now, but it’s essentially the same thing—a brand alliance.”

Like Molson, AB InBev's Michelob Ultra also opted for the gaming route—golf. The AB InBev-owned brand, which has sponsored the PGA Tour for years, will air two Super Bowl spots—one a “Caddyshack”-themed romp with Brian Cox, Serena Williams and Tony Romo and another a promotion for “Full Swing,” Netflix’s new golf series.

The ads will be shoppable via scans for apparel from golf shop Devereux Golf, and Instacart, where viewers can order Michelob Ultra. Ultra VP Ricardo Marques described the strategy as “a smart way to cut through and grab the attention of the audience,” adding that “we also believe these partnerships have never been attempted or done before.”

Balancing the costs

Most brands declined to comment on how the deals were structured. Experts suggested the pacts are potentially complex, and vary depending on the brands involved, with multiple factors at play.

For General Motors, which is calling its Netflix deal a “strategic alliance,” its electric cars will appear in the streaming service’s shows such as “Love is Blind," "Queer Eye" and "Unstable."  The 60-second Super Bowl spot amounts to amarketing campaign promoting the deal, which furthers Netflix’s sustainability objective of including at least one electric vehicle in every Netflix-produced film and series, according to Global Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee.

The brands teased the ad this week with videos featuring Ferrell.

Though both Lee and GM Global Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl spoke about the value proposition the partnership brings to both their brands and brand objectives, the companies declined to comment more specifically about how the deal is structured from a cost perspective.

They did say that there may be more to come.

“Teaming up with Netflix is one example of how we’re approaching partnerships and relationships differently to advance this [EV] future for everyone,” said Wahl. “How do we rewrite the marketing playbook? It’s important for both of our businesses but it only works when it’s good for both partners and we both get a message across that’s impactful.”

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Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify which Netflix shows GM's vehicles will appear in.