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From Alien Musicals to Front-Yard Stunts, 2026 Super Bowl Creative Moves Off Screen
In 2026, the Super Bowl isn’t just about commercials. Brands like Levi's, Skittles, and Avocados from Mexico win attention through experiences, culture, and real-world moments.
Key Points
In 2026, Super Bowl marketing means pop-ups, live experiences, and digital-first ideas that show up around the game with or without airtime.
Levi’s, Skittles, and Avocados From Mexico demonstrate how real-world activations, interactive tools, and commerce-enabled experiences can generate cultural reach that extends well beyond game night.
Industry leaders point to a broader shift toward designing for the full Super Bowl ecosystem, where ideas built to travel across physical, digital, and social channels are how brands earn attention and measure impact.
Experiential placements, from city pop-ups to stadium-centric OOH, anchor brand moments in real life and amplify cultural relevance. That kind of presence turns curiosity into engagement. Levi’s understood this and executed beautifully.
Joss Roulet
Brands broke out of the TV box this Super Bowl, increasingly prioritizing digital-first campaigns, IRL activations, and alternative formats to capture a slice of culture. From alien musicals to AI-powered guacamole gurus, earning attention and driving engagement is the new measure of success.
Most notably, Levi’s showed up in a big way for the Big Game. As the name holder on this year’s stadium, announcing its first Super Bowl spot in 20 years wasn’t enough. The brand tapped into local San Francisco culture to create Home Turf, an immersive pop-up experience celebrating music, fashion, and sports.
“Experiential placements, from city pop-ups to stadium-centric OOH, anchor brand moments in real life and amplify cultural relevance. That kind of presence turns curiosity into engagement. Levi’s understood this and executed beautifully,” said Joss Roulet, Client Service Director at billups.
By integrating pop-ups, celebrity collaborations, and local activations, Levi’s is maximizing engagement across physical and digital channels, proving that in 2026, a Super Bowl strategy isn’t complete without multi-platform storytelling.
Skittles also took an IRL approach, delivering its Big Game ad live to a fan’s home rather than a screen. “Bringing the ad into someone’s front yard transforms it from something people watch into something they experience,” Gabrielle Wesley, CMO of Mars Snacking North America, told BuzzFeed Business.
One to many: Only one household will directly experience the live performance, but the stunt was still designed for viral reach. “One real experience can spark millions of conversations,” Wesley added. Amplified by a partnership with Gopuff, the brand’s whimsical storytelling will be translated into immediate, real-world convenience. “Integrating physical experiences with cultural moments, especially ones ripe for sharing, gives brands memorable visibility that digital alone can’t replicate,” said Roulet.
Totino’s, on the other hand, leveraged the cultural momentum of last year’s traditional ad to launch an extended online universe in 2026. Fan favorite Chazmo, a snack-obsessed alien, captured the hearts of viewers. “People weren’t just quoting the spot, they were rewatching it and asking for more of Chazmo’s cinematic universe,” said Oliver Perez, Business Unit Director for Frozen Snacks at General Mills. Videos featuring Chazmo racked up over 10 million views across Totino’s channels.
With that in mind, Totino’s skipped a 2026 ad buy and instead debuted Chazmo: The Musical, a digital-first storytelling experience. “If we are going to bring back Chazmo, we know we have to do something out-of-this-world and unexpected. A musical shows his origin story while still embodying Totino’s signature humor,” Perez explained.
Cultural capital: The campaign used fan engagement, social sharing, and replayability to prove that in today’s media landscape, digital-first ideas can drive cultural resonance beyond the broadcast. “The Super Bowl is still a cultural touchstone. But today it’s really about the entire ecosystem, tapping into channels like CTV, social, digital, and experiential,” Hayden Gilmer, VP at Waymark, told Ad World News.
Avocados From Mexico (AFM) also skipped the traditional TV spot in favor of interactive digital experiences. This year, fans could engage with the AI-powered “Guac Guru,” modeled after comedian Rob Riggle. The “Prediction Pit” platform gave live football predictions alongside guacamole recipe suggestions.
“By blending real-time football data, technology, and the undeniable appeal of our avocados, we’re creating an experience that not only engages fans with the sport they love but also enhances their celebration of game day,” said CEO Alvaro Luque in a press release. The initiative goes to show how reinvesting the $8M from a traditional TV spot can free brands to experiment with engagement-driven campaigns that resonate in the digital ecosystem.
Measure up: Success in these spaces isn't measured by impressions alone. It’s about embedding themselves in fan rituals, moving at the speed of internet culture, and creating content designed to travel across platforms. Whether it’s alien musicals, front-yard stunts, pop-ups, or AI-powered tools, the common thread is engagement, cultural resonance, and digital-first thinking. “Brands need tools that link outdoor exposure to real outcomes, whether foot traffic, search lift, or digital conversions. Modern OOH measurement is about attention and action, not just eyeballs,” said Roulet.
In 2026, the Super Bowl moved from a media buy to a cultural stage. Totino’s, Skittles, Levi’s, and Avocados From Mexico show that the brands breaking through earn attention with ideas that travel beyond the game, spark conversation, and meet audiences where they actually live: online, offline, and maybe even outer space.
