The Super Bowl LII advertisers ready to play: Returning brands, newcomers & a handful of teaser ads

With less than two weeks until the biggest night of the year for advertisers — or what some people call Super Bowl Sunday — multiple brands have released official announcements about their Super Bowl campaigns.

The usuals include brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA, Hyundai, Kia and Squarespace. Doritos is returning after taking last year off, this time doing a joint spot with Mountain Dew Ice.

In addition to its Budweiser, Bud Light and Michelob ULTRA spots, Anheuser-Busch is buying a Super Bowl ad for its high-end beer brand, Stella Artois. The spot will be a joint 30-second ad with Water.org, featuring Water.org’s co-founder, Matt Damon.

Mars candy brand M&M’s is back after a four-year hiatus. WeatherTech, Groupon, Avocados from Mexico and Intuit’s TurboTax will also be returning. Pepsi is not only back, but the brand is recreating its 1992 Super Bowl spot with Cindy Crawford to launch the “Pepsi Generations” global brand campaign.

Verizon, Lexus and Toyota have also confirmed they will be at this year’s Super Bowl but have not yet released details on their campaigns.

There are a few newcomers as well. Pringles announced on January 18 that its first-ever Super Bowl spot will feature “Saturday Night Live” comedian and actor Bill Hader. According to a number of outlets, headphone and speaker manufacturer Monster Products announced at CES that it would be making its first appearance as a Super Bowl brand.

Kraft will also be a debut Super Bowl advertiser, sort of. In 2016, the company bought a Super Bowl spot for its Heinz product line, but this year will be the first time Kraft is promoting its family of brands, with a spot built around Kraft’s #FamilyGreatly campaign.

Similar to Kraft, Intuit — which regularly buys Super Bowl spots for its TurboTax software product line — is buying its first Super Bowl ad to promote the Intuit brand. The company says it has purchased a 15-second spot to launch its first-ever corporate branding campaign.

It doesn’t look as if there are any common campaign themes among this year’s lineup of Super Bowl advertisers. If anything, the one common thread is the number of brands that have waited to release announcements and teaser spots.

Two years ago, for Super Bowl 50, Wix and Butterfinger had announced their Super Bowl campaigns nearly two months out from game day. Butterfinger dropped its first teaser ad for Super Bowl 50 in December of 2015. Last year, brands were slower to make Super Bowl campaign announcements compared to the year before. The first Super Bowl teaser ad last year, a spot from Intel, didn’t show up until mid-January.

This year, brands appear to be following the same path. The list of 2018 Super Bowl brands that have released teaser ads is a short one so far. As of this week, we’ve seen a six-second clip of Pepsi’s full spot featuring Cindy Crawford, along with the following teaser ads:

Avocados from Mexico

Doritos Blaze & Mountain Dew Ice

Hyundai

M&M’s

Pringles

Squarespace

Stella Artois & Water.org

Now that we are in the home stretch, it’s likely more Super Bowl brands will make announcements or release teaser spots to help extend their Super Bowl campaigns. Just this morning, a number of outlets reported that Hulu will be back as a game day advertiser, but the company has not yet released any details about its campaign.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.