Super Bowl weekend is here with the Philadelphia Eagles set to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans on Sunday evening. While many folks tune in to the Super Bowl for the actual football, others do so for the halftime performance, and some tune in just for the ads.
The ad roster this year includes many of the names one comes to expect to see at the Super Bowl, from beer companies like Budweiser and Coors to savory snack companies like Doritos. We’ll also see some ads from a handful of startups.
It might seem odd for a startup, especially one with limited cash flow and venture capital investors, to spend the millions required to grab an ad slot at the big game. But sometimes the marketing strategy can pay off.
Bernard Schmitt, a professor at Columbia Business School focused on marketing, told TechCrunch ahead of last year’s Super Bowl that while the Super Bowl is a big audience to get in front of, it’s often too broad to be an effective approach for many companies. But he added that it does allow a startup to flaunt their prowess, which can help them stand out.
“It gives you bragging rights,” Schmitt said at the time. “Now I can say, ‘Oh we had an ad on the Super Bowl.’ It changes the image. It sounds like you are a major player, a serious player.”
Here are the startups running ads during this year’s game:
Ramp
Philadelphia Eagles’ star running back Saquon Barkley has not only become an investor in fintech startup Ramp, he is also the star of the company’s first Super Bowl commercial. The 15-second ad — which features Barkley buried in a mountain of expense reports — was conceived, shot, and finished in seven days, Ramp co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman said.
OpenAI
OpenAI is set to debut its first television ad at this year’s Super Bowl, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited insider sources. While the details on what this ad will look like are slim, this move isn’t super surprising as the battle for AI dominance continues to heat up. OpenAI rival Anthropic ran a five-second ad last year that just said “Claude is AI for all of us. Anthropic,” but it chose to sit this year’s game out.
Hims & Hers
Telehealth company Hims and Hers is running its first Super Bowl ad, and it’s getting a lot of attention. The 60-second ad, which criticizes the makers of approved weight-loss drugs, has been described as “provocative.” We should note that the company sells its own knock-off versions of some of the most popular prescription weight-loss drugs and is being investigated by the FDA for “misleading patients.”
Poppi
Prebiotic soda brand Poppi is airing its second Super Bowl commercial. Titled “Soda Thoughts,” this year’s ad “explores the guilt people face when contemplating drinking a soda,” according to Adweek. Creators Alix Earle, Jake Shane, and Rob Rausch from Love Island USA are the stars of the ad.
Papaya Global
Papaya Global, a global workforce payment platform that has raised more than $440 million in venture capital, will be back for its second Super Bowl. The startup’s first Super Bowl ad ran in 2024 and garnered 114 million views, tripling traffic to the company’s website, according to a press release. This year, the company’s ad focuses on how complex a global payroll can be.
