The Philadelphia Eagles will face New Orleans' Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday evening for Super Bowl weekend. Many people tune into the Super Bowl for real football, while others do so for halftime performances, harmonizing with the ads alone.
This year's ad roster includes many of the names you'll expect to see at the Super Bowl, from beer companies like Budweiser and Coors to snack companies like Doritos. You will also see some ads from a few startups.
For startups, especially those with limited cash flow and venture capital investors, spending the millions needed to grab an ad slot in a big game might seem strange. But sometimes your marketing strategy pays off.
Bernard Schmidt, a professor at Columbia Business School, is a marketing-focused professor who spoke to TechCrunch ahead of last year's Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is a big audience to stand in front, but it is too broad to be an effective approach for many companies. However, he added that it will allow startups to show off their prowess.
“It gives you the right to brag,” Schmidt said at the time. “Now I can say, 'Oh, there was an ad in the Super Bowl.' Change the image. You sound like a major player and a serious player. ”
Here are the startups running ads during this year's game:
lamp
The Philadelphia Eagles star, running through Saquon Berkley, will not only become an investor in the Fintech startup ramp, but also the star of the company's first Super Bowl commercial. Lamp co-founder and CEO Eric Griman said the 15-second ad includes Berkley buried in a heap of cost reports.
Openai
Openai is set to debut its first TV ads at this year's Super Bowl, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited Insider Sources. The details of what this ad looks like are slim, but this move isn't too surprising as the fight for AI domination continues to heat up. Last year, Openai's rival humanity chose to play this year's match, “Claude is AI for all of us. But humanity.”
Hims & Hers
Telehealth Company Hims and she are running their first Super Bowl ads, attracting a lot of attention. The 60-second ad criticizing the manufacturer of approved weight loss drugs is said to be “provocative.” It should be noted that the company sells its own knock-off versions of some of its most popular prescription weight loss medications, and is being investigated by the FDA for “misleading patients.”
Poppi
Prebiotic soda brand Poppi is airing its second Super Bowl commercial. This year's ad, titled “Soda Thinking,” explores the guilt people face when they think about drinking soda, according to AdWeek.” creators Alix Earl, Jake Shane and Loblausch of Love Island USA are advertising stars.
Papaya Global
Papaya Global, a global workforce payment platform that has raised over $440 million in venture capital, is back in its second Super Bowl. According to a press release, the startup's first Super Bowl ad ran in 2024, earning 114 million views and tripling traffic to the company's website. This year, the company's ads focus on how complex the global pay can be.