Are Gen Z Still Watching the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl Sunday is a day of rituals. The game on the screen, snacks scattered across the living room, friends and relatives gathered, and an atmosphere of community. But in more recent years, as media has become fractured and atomised, those rituals have been shifting. Fewer people amongst the gen z cohort are watching on traditional TV screens, and their experience of the game is intertwined with buzzy interactions on social media and second screens. 

So for brands spending big bucks to connect with audiences via the Super Bowl, to what extent is gen z reachable via traditional means? And what other steps can be taken to win the hearts and minds of an increasingly influential generation with growing spending power? To find out, LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to experts from across the industry. 

“A lot of gen z watches the Super Bowl (49% plan on watching this year), but many of them don't watch it on classic cable formats (77% don’t have access to cable)” begins Emily Lefyer, associate strategist at Anomaly New York. “Their attention becomes divided across social media and a variety of potential streamers, creating an even harder battle to earn this audience’s attention during the game and its commercial breaks.”

So, what can be done to garner attention and excitement beyond traditional cable channels? “Last year’s most successful ad with gen z built that success far before it actually aired during the game. The now infamous ‘Michael CeraVe’ spot understood the value in capturing attention across the various channels gen z is engaging with before, during, and after the big game”, continues Emily. “That foresight led them to dominating the social conversation that surrounded the Super Bowl. It wasn’t just the use of a celebrity well loved by the audience, but the brand’s dedication to building a compelling story that felt like a worthy investment of the audience’s time and attention.”

Increasingly, brands are thinking holistically when it comes to the Super Bowl. Ian Trombetta is SVP, social, influencer & creator marketing at the NFL - and he’s seen more content successfully pop up across digital platforms and social channels in recent years. “The Super Bowl isn’t just a game - it’s the largest cultural event of the year, and creators are becoming an increasingly essential part of how fans experience it”, he notes. “This season, 'Creator of the Week' with YouTube took the NFL’s creator strategy to another level, giving creators unprecedented access to locker rooms, sidelines, players, legends, and game footage. As we head into the Super Bowl, we’re elevating creator involvement, making them an even bigger part of the action. Creators will be everywhere in New Orleans, bringing fans closer to the game and their communities online.”

All of which suggests that the way to engage with gen z is to ensure your communications are firing out across multiple platforms both on and around the day of the big game. But there’s more to it than that - gen z, perhaps more than previous cohorts, is looking for stories that engage them and has a low patience threshold for bland advertising. 

“Gen z hates to see an ad coming. They skip, block, and scroll past it all. And unlike previous generations, they’re not all that impressed by the spectacle of Super Bowl advertising, let alone the game itself”, warns Anomaly New York’s senior strategist Nthabi Kamala. “Gen z won’t sit through an ad just because it’s in the Super Bowl, but they will engage with content that entertains, surprises, and pulls them in. And if your campaign becomes part of the larger cultural moment, they’ll do the work of spreading it for you.”

Becoming a part of culture is far easier said than done – but it’s almost table stakes for brands who hope to win gen z’s attention. That’s a sentiment echoed by Emily Day, a strategist at Mother LA. “Lasting impact doesn’t come from hijacking culture - it comes from creating something hijackable”, she tells LBB. “The Super Bowl isn’t an opportunity to adopt the language or sentiment of a demographic; it’s a moment of mass appeal. Brands will win with unexpected, innovative assets that live beyond the game - not by narrowing the audience landscape.”

Well-told stories with clever celebrity endorsements are one way to achieve that mass appeal (the Michael Cera/CeraVe example being a case in point), but there are other ways to achieve that, too. Much of the most popular online content on the day of the Big Game is influencer-driven - something that hasn’t escaped Victoria Bachan, president of the creator talent management company Sixteenth. 

“The Super Bowl is no longer just about the game - it’s about the entire content ecosystem surrounding it. It will be watched live in its long form, millions of times and in short form billions of times, through behind-the-scenes, creator-led content”, she says. “From documenting game-day experiences to starring in ad campaigns, creators are transforming the event into a multidimensional platform. This approach not only extends the lifespan of their content, but also meets audiences where they are, delivering exactly what they want, when they want it.”

Overall, then, the key to engaging gen z is to tell stories that are worth listening to - on whatever platform and via whatever means you choose. “The smartest advertisers aren’t just broadcasting; they’re creating timed experiences gen z will engage with”, adds Casey Donahue, communications strategy director at Johannes Leonardo. “At last year’s Super Bowl we cultivated participation among sub-communities with teasers to build a drumbeat of anticipation for Volkswagen’s ad. It’s not enough now just to buy air time during the biggest game of the year. If you want to reach younger viewers, you’re got to earn their screen time.”

Ultimately, connection with the gen z cohort is going to be dependent on something as old as the ad industry itself: The power of good ideas, executed with style and authenticity. “Brands should treat The Super Bowl as an opportunity to shock us with who they are, not show us an over-generalised version of who they think we are or what we want to see”, concludes Alyssa Moreno, a creative at Mother LA. “We are exhausted from the soulless attempts to ‘relate’. So it’s time to experiment. Break the rules. Trying too hard to get it right is a sure way to get it wrong.”