Rihanna Bowl Stole the Show But Brands Struggled To Connect

Speaking to LBB, Cashmere Agency’s senior strategist, cultural innovation, Sophia Kressierer; director of cultural innovation, Lani Tuitasi and senior strategist, A. Jay Johnson discuss the importance of creating ads for the modern culture that surrounds the Super Bowl, rather than using old techniques that fall flat today. The team also shares details about the agency’s new Cultural Impact Analysis (CIA) product, and use the framework to to identify who won with audiences and who lost out on the culture this year at the big game. 

It’s an undeniable truth: the Super Bowl has become more than a sporting event - it’s a cultural moment appealing to a much broader audience than the NFL’s traditional fanbase. In fact, Google search volume for ‘Rihanna’ nearly doubled that of the ‘Super Bowl’ itself on the day of the event with many proudly displaying their disinterest in football. 

This has brought us into a new era of Super Bowl advertising where the culture that’s traditionally considered ancillary to the game is now driving the most engagement. It’s not about creating ads for the Super Bowl anymore, it’s about creating ads for the culture surrounding it. By creating cultural impact, you gain access to a whole new general market of young and diverse audiences and more effectively achieve your brand goals. 

Yet most brands who are investing millions into this year’s game are operating from an old school, outdated ad playbook filled with irrelevant celebs, overdone nostalgia plays, and centring white male narratives - all which fall flat with diverse audiences today. 

Cashmere has developed a solution for connecting brands effectively to culture with the launch of our Cultural Impact Analysis (CIA) product. This new tool evaluates brands’ creative work on whether it achieves resonance and impact among diverse communities by considering brand credibility, authentic representation, active recentring, and cultural impact. By applying this framework to this year’s Super Bowl ads we are able to identify who won with audiences and who lost out on the culture. 

Brand Credibility

Assesses a brand’s relationship with the communities it’s targeting in its creative work. 

Tubi was an unexpected winner for building brand credibility with diverse audiences. #tubigotme has taken off on socials going into the next morning - and looks to be emerging as a TikTok trend. Fast channels, we see you! And now the competition is hot with Tubi coming on top and getting the culture talking.

Doordash also successfully delivered an ad full of ‘if you know, you know’ nods that felt specific to and inclusive of the brand’s audience. Nickelodeon’s TikTok darling Tiny Chef, Hulu’s celeb chef Matty Matheson from ‘The Bear’, and rap god Raekwon ‘The Chef’ played off each other seamlessly in an ad that spotlighted food culture.

Authentic Representation

Observes the diversity, intersectionality, and inclusivity of the brand’s depiction of underrepresented communities. 

Unfortunately, this Super Bowl didn’t give us much authentic representation to observe, with ad after ad centring on the same demographic: white men. Downy, Hellmann’s, Doritos, Bud Light, Workday, PopCorners, Heineken 0.0, Paramount+, Squarespace - the list goes on and on. The opportunities to integrate and celebrate diverse narratives reflecting a diverse American audience were consistently overlooked by brands settling for the traditional advertising playbook we’ve had since the Mad Men days, and it’s just not hitting like it used to.

Active Recentring

Considers how disruptive the work is in combating stereotypes, overcoming stigmas, and centring underrepresented communities.

The NFL has spent the last few years investing in ads that appeal to a broader audience. 47% of the league’s fanbase are women and the NFL has held consistent resonance with the Latine community. Centring the contributions of pioneer players like Diana Flores, Mexico’s World Games-winning flag football quarterback and the star of the spot, works to successfully spotlight a key audience narrative that is shaping the future of the NFL brand.

Cultural Impact

Leverages social listening to determine whether the work drove cultural conversation, and as a result, cultural impact. 

Rihanna’s halftime performance overshadowed the Super Bowl for many viewers with tweet after tweet referring to the event as the ‘Rihanna concert’. Her intentional but subtle inclusion of a Fenty compact was the only brand placement needed to get people talking about her cosmetics brand, which had also been running football-themed ads leading up to the event. And then her red outfit too was a true ‘IYKYK’, paying homage to the late André Leon Talley - which has the fashion community buzzing. Overall, Rihanna successfully turned a completely brand-agnostic music performance into a massive buzz generator for her brand, showcasing the value of unlocking cultural moments for audience engagement. 

As the demographic tide shifts across the United States, culture continues to evolve and brands must evolve alongside it if they want to continue contributing to the narrative. Key events like the Super Bowl are shifting from being hosts of traditional ad slots to gold mines of innovative opportunities for brand resonance with audiences and the culture they are driving. Through partnership with Cashmere, brands can unlock these opportunities by building credibility, achieving authentic representation, and actively recentring their target audiences, ultimately fueling cultural impact.