Inside the Super Bowl activation boom

0:08Hello, and welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast. I'm Special Projects Editor, Melissa Daniels. Today, I'm joined by Senior Reporter, Julia Waldo. Julia, how are you today? I'm great. Thank you, Melissa. How are you? I'm doing well. It's a pleasure to talk to you. Today, we're going to talk about something that everyone in the sort of retail and marketing circles has been buzzing about this week. And that's the Super Bowl, a.k.a. the big game. We'll get into some of that later. But if you haven't noticed, brands have really glommed on to the Super Bowl as a moment to capture customers' attention.

0:45And this really goes beyond the commercials, right? You know, for brands, the Super Bowl isn't just the time to spend$8 million on a 30-second ad that plays in front of 127 million TV viewers, right? It's also this opportunity to show up in person with activations. So today we're going to get into who's showing up, how they're making the most of activations, what do they get out of it. To me, this topic is really interesting because every time I talk to brands, they really want to show up in person, right? They want their connection with their audience to go beyond, you know, just an ad on meta, you know, they want to be there for you in person, but it's kind of hard to pull off.

1:26But before we get into Super Bowl stuff, Julia, Yeah, I'm curious as a New Yorker, you know, do you run into like brand activations in the city very often? Do you see brand takeovers? What's your experience with that, you know, in the wild? Yeah, it's a great question. I definitely do, especially I feel like downtown, like in the Soho area or Nolita, I feel like that is like prime time real estate for pop ups. And I've definitely had it where like, I don't know, even on the weekend, I'll just be out with a friend walking around and we see a huge line like down an entire block of people just waiting to get into a pop-up and like sometimes I feel like with the pop-ups it's even hard to tell what the pop-up is like the the graphics and the lettering and stuff outside are sometimes kind of vague and so I've definitely had it where I ask people like hey what is this and they do know it's nobody's ever like I don't know why I'm here but um you know definitely they they uh they're they're willing to wait in line for this.

2:24So, you know, there's a lot of demand. Yeah, we love a line. I love a line. Just a reminder of some of the things that interest me. But, you know, I'm curious if we can kind of set the table for what a brand activation actually is, because it's such an industry buzzword and it kind of encompasses a lot of things like, okay, it's a brand activation. Like, what does that actually mean to you? Yeah, it's so funny because I feel like activate, you can kind of activate anything, right? Like it just kind of makes something happen. But I mean, for a lot of these brands that I've talked to in the past few years about their quote unquote activations, a lot of them are doing these kind of pop-ups where they, you know, come into a location for a few days and then come out.

3:12And usually it's, you know, tied to something else that's going on in that, you know, same city. So, for example, for the Super Bowl, we're seeing a lot of brands come to the Bay Area, San Francisco, especially, even though the Super Bowl is happening in Santa Clara. I think there's a really big, you know, rush of consumers in San Francisco. So they're trying to, you know, take advantage of that. But yeah, just like kind of more interactive experiences, you know, things where you can win prizes or like, you know, get to see some custom special drops that maybe you can't get online or in the store.

3:46Just kind of more of like a, I guess, kind of like a special kind of event that is, you know, just for that time and that time only. And if you miss it, you miss it. So you better go. Yeah, absolutely. And in my neck of the woods, we see a lot of this around Coachella and Stagecoach and festival season. even brands that aren't on the festival grounds still do parties and pop-ups over Palm Springs and the broader Coachella Valley. They have parties, invites, DJs, all in that sort of like festival vibe, even if they're not actually part of Coachella. And it's just kind of like a great way to absorb some of that momentum, right?

4:25Because you know there's people in town. I like what you said earlier too about like giveaways or something to do. Like it can't just be like your product on a shelf and expect people to see it. Like to me, a really good activation on pop-up is something where I actually have an activity. I walk away with like, you know, a photo strip or a cute swag bag. I'm learning maybe something about the brand while I'm there getting some samples. sure, but it's more like because it's fun to be there is why I want to be there as a consumer, you know? Yeah, it's a really good point because a lot of these brands that have these pop-ups, a lot of them also have stores, right?

5:04And if you just want to see the products, a lot of times you can just go in the store. So why would they, you know, basically want to replicate the same experience? Like they want the pop-up to be something that feels like unique and exclusive and very like, if you miss it, you miss it. And not something that is very similar to what they have permanently in their stores. Like they want it to be kind of an additive experience. Exactly. Exactly. One of my favorite pop-ups that happened here locally was Cheez-It did a pop-up at a gift shop in Joshua Tree, sort of a gift and general merchandise store called The Station.

5:42That's really cool. Yeah, it's a great locally owned operation. But Cheez-It did a pop-up there. And it was really funny because they were attracting a lot of the tourists driving through on this main road to Joshua Tree National Park. But to this day, when I drive by, for some reason on Apple Maps, it's still tagged like Cheez-It Station or something. That's iconic. Like the pop-up still shows up on Apple Maps. Like how did they do that? That's what you want. Like your pop-up stands the test of time, you know? I'll never look at cheese. It's the same way. Like it's just, I'm ingrained to the brand in a different way.

6:23But let's get into the Super Bowl, as you mentioned in Santa Clara with the Seahawks and the Patriots. We're not going to get into the football part. I'm mad about the NFL right now. So we're not going to touch that. But we are going to touch on, you know, just some of the more memorable and creative pop-ups and activations that brands are doing this year around the Super Bowl. One that I think is really fun is Away, the luggage company, having their eight-foot giant suitcase that they're kind of dragging around San Francisco and doing some pop-ups with. You reported on this recently for modernretail.co, right?

7:01Yes. Yeah. The Away suitcase, it's really fun because they actually also brought it to New York. And I remember seeing a bunch of Instagram videos when they brought it to New York and it was a huge hit. And now they're doing it in San Francisco. And they're also doing like a scavenger hunt around it where they're going to have like social media prompts, you know, about where the where the suitcase is and when you can see it. So it's really yeah, it's fun. I feel like that's a good way to get people to stop in their tracks on the street and like clock your product. And even if it's not, you know, directly related to football.

7:32I also like that it's mobile. I feel like this is a creative kind of pop up because they're not fixed to one area. They're sort of able to tap different audiences in different parts of the city and really kind of spread their awareness a little more. So I thought that was cool. Another travel company doing some pop-ups is Base. They are doing a watch party in Giardali Square, which is like a fun, really touristy area in San Francisco. And I like that this is catered toward people who like aren't going to the game. You know, they're doing like a whole like race, bingo and having some customizable stadium regulation bags.

8:10I think that's really fun where you're kind of like tapping into some of the themes of Super Bowl and football and sports attendance. But, you know, for people who aren't spending$3 ,000 to go to the Super Bowl. Exactly. I feel like what they're doing is really fun because, yeah, basically they're taking over this San Francisco Brewing Company. They told me that they are taking part of the space and making it into like a football turf, football field, for lack of a better word, they're going to have people do, yeah, these relay races with bags. They're going to do bingo where, you know, if someone gets a turnover in like the first five minutes of the game or something, you can put down, you know, your bingo token and you can win prizes.

8:50And it just seems like a good way to get people, you know, involved and excited in the sport, but also like coming together as a community for your brand. So it seems like, yeah, and they're a luggage brand, and they talked to me about how, you know, people have to travel for the Super Bowl, like athletes, spectators, like it's a big travel occasion. And like, maybe people don't necessarily think of luggage brands with the Super Bowl, but they're trying to, you know, make that connection there. And I feel like it sounds like they're doing a really good job there. Yeah, I think that's a great point with these being travel brands, because I think traditionally, when we think Super Bowl activation, Super Bowl brands, you think of like snacks and chicken wings and hot sauce and beer.

9:31You don't necessarily think like elevated luggage, but it really makes sense when you think about who's in San Francisco at this time, the demographics of the customer. I think it's really smart for them to show up in this arena. What were some of the other brands that you've noticed doing pop-ups or who have activations around the Super Bowl in the Bay this week? Yeah. So I talked to Wall on Earth, which is the footwear and apparel brand that was actually co-founded by Christian McCaffrey, who is a 49ers player who will not be in the Super Bowl, but this is on his home turf. So basically this is their first pop-up ever.

10:10They started in 2024. They were telling me that they just really viewed this as a good way to get on the ground, again in like Christian McCaffrey's backyard, but also to just engage with runners and, you know, athletes and really let them see their product because a lot of their sales right now come from digital channels. So they were saying, we want to show people the product, but they're also partnering with Athletic Brewing, you know, and doing kind of a co-branded experience there where they're sponsoring run clubs together. They're going to be holding panels about the future of sports. They're going to be offering like light bites and coffee and beer and all kinds of things like that.

10:53So basically, you know, what they're doing is kind of, I guess it's kind of a ramp to having a bigger physical retail presence. But this is like a way for them to kind of test out, you know, what it's like to interact more with customers in real life, which I thought was really neat. Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great example. I love this idea of, you know, the brand doing something in its own backyard, right? And taking advantage of the fact that there's going to be eyeballs and tons of people in their hometown. So how do we make an association with our brand there? And given that he's a football player, it's kind of a perfect tie-in.

11:30You know, they know they have people who are their customer. Another San Francisco-based company that's doing the most is Levi's. They're taking over part of the financial district with their home turf activation, having lots of entertainment. They have some really interesting limited edition collabs coming out like with Jordan and with Starter. They're really leaning into like not just like Levi's as a fashion brand, but Levi's is like a cultural touchstone to sports, to music. You know, last year was a huge year for them with Beyonce, you know, Levi's. That song is great. Yeah. So they had this really amazing, like kind of more music and fashion connection last year.

12:15And this year they're taking that more into sports given that, you know, the Super Bowl is kind of in their own backyard. And I thought this was a really great example of, you know, a brand really going all out. But as you said, if you're kind of a startup or you haven't done a lot of physical presence retailer pop-ups before, this is a lot harder for you to take on. So we can kind of compare and contrast, right? A small brand sort of maybe testing the waters at a moment like this versus someone making huge, huge moments out of it. Totally. Yeah. It's cool that you can participate in the Super Bowl in many different levels now.

12:51As you mentioned at the beginning of our chat, Like if you wanted to pay millions of dollars for a 30 second ad, you can do that. But if you want to do something a little bit scrappier, you know, that is, you know, more experimental, maybe like this is a time where you can try a pop up and see if it works. And, you know, also just see if people in the sports world are receptive to your brand and, you know, what kind of new customers you could potentially acquire during this period. So, I mean, base, for example, like they were telling me they are going to give out, you you know, a piece of paper basically to people who come to the pop-up that has a QR code on it that you can scan to get 20 % off of your purchase if you're a new customer.

13:31So, you know, it's both an engagement play, but also an acquisition play, I feel like, for a lot of these brands. Yeah, I love that idea of using this as an acquisition moment. We're definitely going to get more into the ROI on these kind of activations later in the conversation. But I did just want to touch base on, you know, whether these brands are like official partners of the Super Bowl or not and what that means. You know, this is an area that is very heavily trademarked, right? And that's why you'll see a lot of companies say things like, the big game or football's favorite day. Because if you're not an official partner of the Super Bowl, you can't use that in your marketing.

14:09Is that your understanding as well? Yeah. I mean, as you said, the Super Bowl, those words have a huge amount of weight to them, you know, both in terms of, you know, the trademark, the cultural cachet that they have. Um, it's, it's very important, uh, to the NFL and to the Superbowl to, you know, maintain, uh, ownership of that. And so, you know, you do have these brands using alternative language, as you said, I mean, this is stuff that we see with the Olympics too, where, um, you know, if you are not an official Olympics sponsor or partner or what have you, you, you know, you see people saying things like, Oh, Los Angeles, 2028.

14:47and you know to us what that means like we know that means the summer olympics but you know you can get around it in that way um but yeah with the super bowl like for example you can't say oh we're your go-to beverage for the super bowl or we have all of your super bowl party needs because then you're implying that your product is explicitly connected to the super bowl in some way um when it's not although there are partners specifically of the nfl and of the super bowl so So to that end, like Abercrombie and Fitch, for instance, they are the official fashion partner of the NFL. This is their first year as that title holder.

15:26And so they are doing a merchandise pop-up. They made custom jackets for players who were participating in the Pro Bowl. They're going to be doing a whole fashion presentation the night before the Super Bowl. So, you know, there's definitely ways for people to be both officially and unofficially involved. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point, too, about the Olympics is a very similar thing where, and this is where if you're a brand, you need to be careful how you're threading that needle, right? Of how are you sort of capitalizing on the momentum and being a part of the moment without like running afoul of IP law, right?

16:03You know, you want to make sure you're watching that. To that end, though, I think there's, and we sort of touched on this earlier, there's multiple ways for brands to be involved, right? It doesn't just have to be, we're gonna market to be a party at your product. You know, and there's sort of different ways to tie in. And we're also seeing brands, you know, some of the ones that are doing activations and pop-ups on the ground are also running TV commercials. They're also still buying that ad. You know, Levi's, for instance, is also buying an ad this year for the Super Bowl. And I think it's one of their first Super Bowl ads in a long time, actually.

16:39And, you know, but the Super Bowl's at Levi's Stadium, you know, it makes perfect sense for them to show up there. Because you don't want to be too random, you know. It's like if you're showing up at this moment, you want to have a reason why. Yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of the conversation on ads this year is also about, like, the role of AI in the ads. And, you know, how much of the ads that we're going to be seeing on the TV are, you know, part AI or whatever. And like, I think the appeal for a lot of brands of a pop-up is like, you know, it's not AI. Like it is an experience in which you are like actually having to go in person and interact with this brand.

17:17And I think that's super valuable for a lot of these brands because especially, you know, we've seen after COVID, a lot of companies want to have more of a relationship with the customer that's in person. And so I think that, you know, that's just becoming very valuable. Yeah, I do think this underscores so much about where we are in this moment of craving real connection. You know, if you're going to shop a new brand right now and you want there to be a there there, you know, you want there to be a why, because it is so competitive and so crowded. So to catch your attention, they kind of have to do something different, right?

17:51And I think activations and pop ups are a big way to do that. And that brands are getting a lot out of that. Or at least they hope they are. And, you know, I'm curious if you can share a little bit about, you know, in talking to some of the brands who are doing this this year, how do they make sure that this isn't just like a photo op or an Instagram moment? Like, how do you make sure that the customer walks away with like a real impression of your brand and who you are and not just like a shiny object, you know? Yeah, it's a really good question. And this is something that the brands that I've talked to are thinking about because, you know, on one hand, if you do have people come to the pop-up, like for the brand, that is great social content, right?

18:32Like they can take pictures of people in line. They can take pictures of people with your product and they can repurpose that on social media. And that's super helpful for them. But like, what does that give the people at the pop-up, right? Like they want to get something out of it too. So, you know, that's something where like the chance to win prizes really comes into play. that's something where like meet and greets with celebrity um co-founders really comes into play like base is co-founded by shea mitchell who is an actress um you know largely known for pretty little liars and other projects um you know and she will be at the pop-up and christian mccaffrey he's going to be at the pop-up for a while on earth so you know if you are a fan of these celebrities um you can you know also interact with them um you know in in this public space And then, yeah, just in terms of also like getting discount codes, you know, like base is doing things like that, that give you back something as a customer and allow you to also get something out of the experiences is super important, I think.

19:32But yeah, I mean, pop ups, it's interesting because I feel like they are they are expensive, you know, like for these brands that I've talked to, not all of them expect to make money from the pop up. So it's like, what do you get out of it in return? you know? Yeah, yeah. I think that's a great point. You know, when you think about the ROI of putting events on like this, especially at this scale, sometimes like, I can't imagine it's cheap to like take over a brewery or like rent out part of the financial district of San Francisco, right? Like there's got to be some hefty contracts involved. That's where then the flip side, I think you see some brands getting more creative where maybe they're doing something mobile, maybe they're, you know, I think I keep thinking about like the Red Bull truck, right, which is sort of maybe like the OG kind of activation of our era, if you really think about it.

20:21I mean, they were kind of doing this way back when, and now they have brought it to a different level. But when I think about what brands are getting out of it, I think it's just the more awareness play. You know, you might get some acquisition off of the coupons, but really, you're giving people a sense of who you are as a brand and what you show up for and what you think is fun. And, you know, as you mentioned, I think there's also great content opportunities, you know, it's a way to sort of feed your short form video and your photo cachet for the year. Yeah, the brand awareness part is really huge for a lot of the brands that I talk to, like they, you know, want to attract people who are already fans of the brand, but they also want to bring in people who maybe haven't shopped the brand before or like don't even know it exists, you know?

21:12And for something like Wall on Earth, it's a little over a year old. Like that's extremely important. Like the more brand awareness they can get, like the better. And, you know, BASE also told me like they are also really looking for this to increase brand awareness among men specifically. You know, they have a large portion of their audience who identifies as women 80 to 85%. And they were telling me that, you know, their bags are, are technically gender neutral, but they, um, you know, haven't been able to get as much of, of, um, you know, men to, to jump on board the brand. And so by doing something around the Superbowl, you know, which everybody watches, but you know, uh, there's men in the game, um, they are, you know, trying to, you know, resonate with this audience.

21:59So I feel like the awareness play, even if you can't really measure it in dollars and cents can trickle down, you know, the timeline for your brand if people remember you in the future and then come to buy your products. Yeah, absolutely. I love this idea of using it as an opportunity to sort of open up the aperture on who's your customer, right? And like, is there new demographics you can tap out of this? And maybe a pop-up or an activation is the time to just like plant the seed versus like reap all the rewards in that moment, right? You know, mentioning the demographics of this, you mentioned that the Super Bowl really is for everybody at this point.

22:38But, you know, football, typically a male-dominated audience. You know, we can thank T-Swift for normalizing it for the rest of us. Yes. But I will say, you know, the people who go to the Super Bowl, people who are going to travel to a game of this size, this is like a probably pretty affluent customer, right? These tickets are not cheap. Travel's not cheap. The Bay Area is not a cheap place to stay. So I think for the brands involved in here, they kind of know that this is maybe a customer who's on the higher end of the income side, maybe has a little more disposable income, maybe travels more, right?

23:19and is a tourist, someone who is used to going to places and experiencing new things. And I just kind of wonder if like the demographics of the audience is playing a role here at all. Yeah, it's a really good point. And I think, you know, it's important to remember that, you know, there are ways to make these pop-ups also inclusive for people who aren't on the ground, you know and that I think is when brands have a chance to do something like take a lot of social video um you know interview maybe the celebrity co-founders who are coming by the pop-up like in the case of you know Levi's doing all of these musical events like streaming those isn't is a way for people to still participate in the pop-up too even if they can't you know buy a very expensive ticket to fly to San Francisco.

24:10So I think, you know, there's ways to make the pop-ups also, you know, more inclusive and, you know, wide reaching, even though the appeal of a lot of these pop-ups is, you know, we're on the ground, we're like physically in this space, that doesn't mean that it's just for the people who are there and who have the money to show up there. Yeah, totally. And then you're also generating like a little bit of FOMO, right? Where people who are not at the pop-up or activation get to witness it from elsewhere. And they're like, oh man, that's cool. I didn't know this brand was into this kind of thing or that they felt this way or that they had this much sense of humor or that they liked the same bands I do, whatever it is.

24:52That's sort of the appeal or the theme of the pop-up. You can kind of pull from elsewhere if you're sending all that to your social and your digital channels. I'm curious. I'm going to be watching for Super Bowl weekend, how brands are showing up on my own feed, you know, like seeing who's talking about it, who's there, who's doing ads that I haven't encountered yet. Anything you're going to be watching or paying attention to from a brand perspective? Yeah, definitely the ads and like who is running ads for the first time this year. Like I know Tecovas, they're running their first ad this year.

25:28You know, they've just come off of like a very, very huge period of rapid growth for the company with lots of new products and new stores and also pop-ups. You know, they did something at Grand Central Station last year that we wrote about. So, you know, keen to see who is participating there, but also just, I feel like which products really stand out. Like I still remember like the Poppy Super Bowl ad that aired, not too long ago. And the Nerds gummy clusters ad that also aired not too long ago during the Super Bowl. I feel like there's ones that really stick out. And then you just start seeing people buy those products more and more because then they're aware of it.

26:10So many of my friends started buying gummy clusters around that time and also poppies. So I feel like just seeing the trickle down effects, speaking of brand awareness, but you know, of, of who manages to have like a really good ad and like how often we notice those products showing up in people's hands in the future months and weeks to come is also something I'm kind of interested in. Yeah. Yeah. I still remember when Timu did an ad a couple of years back, right. And everyone like hadn't heard of Timu yet necessarily. And then everyone was like, Oh, okay. Um, and there was that year that there was a lot of crypto ads too.

26:48Do you remember that? Oh my God. Yeah. And it was like really confusing what they were. It was like, nobody knew what it was an ad. So I'm curious. So much to watch, so much to look forward to the football. Go Bills. But Julia, thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us and all your expertise. I love talking to you. Oh my God. Love talking to you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I'm not as knowledgeable on the football front, but I love snacks and ads. So I am happy to talk about that all day. Perfect. All right. We'll talk to you later. Thank you for being here.