The Super Bowl lineup is in. No, not the teams, but the advertisers, some of whom seem to announce plans for the game earlier and earlier each year.

A 30-second Super Bowl ad costs around $7 million, but the reach is unparalleled in live sports, regardless of marketers’ goals. Around 123 million people watched the 2024 game, making it the most-viewed Super Bowl on record, and Fox, the broadcaster of the 2025 game, sold out of ads in early November.

Beyond that, appearing in the big game can signal broader brand success.

“It’s become a place for advertisers not just to reach a large audience, but to show Wall Street that…they’re doing well,” said Frank Scherma, co-founder and president of RadicalMedia, which has produced Super Bowl ads for brands including CrowdStrike and Pepsi. “It covers a two-prong approach there: reach the consumer, but also reach the investors.”

Though the teasers remain few and far between, some seasoned marketing execs have a sense of what to expect during Super Bowl ad breaks.

Why so serious? Execs said it’s safe to expect brands to go the comedic route. Funny Super Bowl ads have become especially prevalent post-Covid, said VaynerMedia Chief Client Officer Nick Miaritis, who’s worked on Super Bowl campaigns like the death of Mr. Peanut and Miller High Life’s one-second ad from 2009.

• Given the political climate, advertisers are also more likely to “keep it light” rather than risk being “wildly off the mark tonally,” he said.

Plus, the Super Bowl is meant to be fun: “It’s a moment of relief, not reflection,” Jones Krahl, US head of creative and creative fellow at Deloitte Digital, said. “You’re drinking your beer, you’re eating your wings, you’re celebrating. I think this year specifically…brands should use a more light-hearted tone, a humorous tone, even a stupid tone.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Marketing might be fun, but no one said it would be easy.

In the new year, marketers are facing new technology, new consumer habits and preferences, and a constantly shifting landscape (like the fate of a TikTok ban that’s now in the hands of the Supreme Court).

We asked marketers about the biggest challenges they anticipate facing in 2025 to find out straight from the source what they think will be their biggest hurdles—and find out what opportunities could be waiting on the other side.

Staying agile: “If asked, ‘How would you do the work if all the constraints were removed?’ The answer lies in using technology to be more efficient, helping unlock our potential to make a bigger impact by freeing up time needed to use our creative superpowers and amp up personalization efforts.”—Suzanne Kounkel, global and US CMO, Deloitte

Adapting to changing culture and consumers: “Customer preferences are rapidly changing, and we expect that to continue in 2025. Although it can present challenges, we see it as an opportunity to meaningfully evolve how we communicate with our customers, and continually flex and adapt to come up with new ideas and strategies that speak directly to their feedback.”—Wanda Gierhart Fearing, chief marketing and content officer, Cinemark

Continue reading here.—KH, AM, RB, JS, JN

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Stacey Andrade-Wells is CMO of Liquid I.V. Prior to joining Liquid I.V., she spent more than seven years at Proctor & Gamble working on brands like Gain, Swiffer, and Mr. Clean.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Last year, I had the privilege of overseeing Liquid I.V.’s first-ever brand refresh. Our goal was to elevate the brand while honoring the invaluable feedback from our consumers and preserving the brand equity built over the past 12 years. Guided by extensive customer insights, we introduced a new visual identity, revamped packaging, an enhanced web presence, and a modernized logo. The aim was to ensure our customers fully understand how our product works. We wanted to be easily identifiable on the shelf, be transparent about our science, and showcase our delicious flavors with a more fruit-forward design.

A brand refresh can be delicate, with a high risk of alienating loyal users. However, I loved this project because it operated at the intersection of consumer insights, data and research, and creativity. With meticulous care, we launched something that not only grew our business but also delighted our consumers. I could not be prouder of our team.

Read more here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Disney’s Hulu + Live TV is merging with Fubo, marking the end of Fubo’s lawsuit against Venu Sports, the sports streaming joint venture from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Comcast’s FreeWheel announced a new ad-buying platform called Universal Ads that includes inventory across TV and streaming and is specifically geared toward SMBs. The platform’s media partners include NBCU, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Roku.
• Stagwell is acquiring Create Group, a digital comms agency based in Dubai.
• Sephora was named the official and exclusive beauty partner of the new women’s 3-on-3 basketball league Unrivaled, and VistaPrint became a jersey-patch sponsor of Mist Basketball Club, one of the teams in the league.