Papaya Global Automates Ping-Pong in Super Bowl Debut

Papaya Global, the workforce payments platform, will be making its big game debut next month at Super Bowl 58. Creative agency McCann Tech has partnered again with production company KNUCKLEHEAD and director Rob Leggat on this follow up to 2023’s ‘You to the Power of Papaya’ campaign, bringing ping-pong to the biggest football event of the year.

The sporty spot, ‘Small Balls. Big Game.’, is the only ad from an Israeli tech firm participating in this year’s Super Bowl and features a duplicating CFO and multiple self-bouncing ping-pong balls to showcase Papaya’s AI-powered platform. The slightly surreal film, shot by ‘Billions’ DoP Jake Polonsky with VFX from OkayStudio, shows how Papaya Global automates workforce payments and payroll, providing the output of multiple CFOs, while other technologies fail to meet CFOs’ needs.

The creative team behind this milestone includes Emmy Award winner Matt McCarron, Webby and Cannes winner Jonathan Vingiano, and Super Bowl ads veteran Alon Seifert, who is the client creative director for Papaya. A 10-second teaser, titled ‘Crushing the Big Game’ has also been released ahead of the Super Bowl, which kicks off on Sunday, February 11th. 

The teaser shows a table tennis-playing CFO, who says that Papaya Global “is going to crush this year’s big game”, before being tackled by an overzealous football player in full uniform.