• Nike aired its first ad in the Super Bowl in 27 years on Sunday.
• The brand's return to the big game comes as its new CEO looks to reverse a sales slump.
• It has shaken up its marketing division and wants to create cultural moments to elevate its brands.

Nike made a surprise return as a Super Bowl advertiser for the first time in 27 years.

JPMorgan analysts stole Nike's thunder by sharing the news in a research note published Thursday following a meeting with the brand's CEO and CFO.

Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The ad featured a who's who of women in sports, including track and field star Sha'Carri Richardson and WNBA player Caitlin Clark, over narration by Grammy-Award-winning rapper Doechii.

"You can't be demanding. You can't be relentless. You can't put yourself first," Doechii can be heard saying. "So — put yourself first."

Nike said in a statement that the company "has a starkly different perspective, offering a call to athletes across the globe: Do it anyway — and redefine the expectations of sport along the way."

The marketing push comes at a high-stakes moment for Nike, which has been struggling to revive lagging sales. And it's an expensive bet: Some Super Bowl advertisers have spent more than $8 million to secure 30 seconds of airtime.

Nike's new CEO, Elliott Hill, detailed a turnaround plan in December. Hill rejoined Nike in October after a four-year hiatus. He was formerly the company's president of marketplace and consumer.

Since taking the helm, Hill has called out Nike for certain missteps, such as offering too many discounts and shifting attention away from its relationships with wholesalers.

The company is also trying to make iconic sneaker brands like Jordans and Air Force 1s hot again by pulling back on supply to boost demand.

Nike's revenue slid 8% year over year to $12.4 billion during the three months ending November 30, the company said in December. Nike shares are down roughly 30% over the last 12 months.

Nike has also shaken up its marketing department in recent months to elevate its brand storytelling, as Adweek previously reported. Several company veterans returned to or were elevated in the marketing organization over the last year, including former vice president Nicole Hubbard Graham who was named marketing chief.

Nike seems to be banking on big cultural moments to get its brand back on track.

The company debuted a new ad timed around this month's Grammy Awards that highlighted the legacy of its 40-year-old Jordan Brand.

JPMorgan analysts met with Hill and Nike financial chief Matthew Friend at an event on Thursday morning. In a research note recapping the meet and greet, the analysts said Nike execs cited "excitement" around Hubbard's return and the brand's representation at "large consumer moments," including the Jordan campaign and a planned Super Bowl ad.

Hill told investors in December that Nike had to "get back to putting sport at the center of everything that we do." He said the company would invest in "big, bold brand marketing efforts" and important sports moments.

• Instacart on Sunday is set to air its first Super Bowl ad, featuring nostalgic brand mascots.
• In an interview, Instacart CMO Laura Jones shared the risks involved in creating the campaign.
• Instacart is betting its investment will boost the brand along with sales and ad revenue.

Instacart's chief marketing officer, Laura Jones, acknowledges she's been a little stressed recently.

Jones and her team are preparing to air Instacart's first Super Bowl ad, and the stakes are high.

Any brand looking to stand out this weekend during TV advertising's tentpole event has a lot on the line. Some brands paid the broadcaster Fox upward of $8 million to secure 30 seconds of airtime this year. That doesn't even include the costs of producing the ad and the extra media buys on social media and elsewhere.

"There have been so many mornings over the past six months where I've just been scared we're taking this huge risk," Jones told BI. "There are points in the creative process when you are kind of operating on faith, and it's scary."

Instacart's ad, which is set to air during the second quarter of the game, draws on nostalgia, bringing back memorable brand mascots from previous Super Bowls. Characters like the Heinz wiener dogs, the Green Giant, the Old Spice Guy, and the Kool-Aid Man join forces to deliver a family's grocery order.

Jones said the ad sought to convey the idea that Instacart takes care of the groceries so its users can take care of their lives.

When Jones took the early Super Bowl ad idea to Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, she said, she was asked by Simo, "How do we know this is going to work?"

Jones did have a data point to back up the strategy: The company's "Bunny Ears" back-to-school campaign during the Paris Olympics had driven "material" sales growth. Still, the Super Bowl would be a much bigger investment.

The four members of the Instacart marketing team behind the Super Bowl push had a make-or-break meeting about whether to go ahead.

"We were like, OK, we're choosing to do this," Jones said. "We're about to take on a ton of work. We're about to take on a huge risk. If we don't do this well, it could cost me or all of us our careers, but do we want to take this risk?"

"We did because we felt like we put in the hard work, we were ready, and we felt confident in our ability to execute," Jones added.

System1, a company that rates TV ads on their potential to drive long-term growth for brands, rated Instacart's ad at 4.1 stars out of a possible 5.9. That's a good score that placed it ninth out of the Super Bowl LIX ads that System1 has analyzed so far. The top-scoring ad, with a perfect score of 5.9 stars, was "The Little Farmer" from Lay's, which tells a story about a girl growing her own potatoes. System1 asks a panel of consumers to indicate how they feel about the ad they're viewing from a list of emotions ranging from contempt and disgust to happiness and surprise.

Vanessa Chin, System1's senior vice president of marketing, said the Instacart ad intensified its emotional connection with viewers by using familiar characters and music.

"Using 'Take It to da House' as the soundtrack was particularly effective, tying into Instacart's delivery business while enhancing the emotional impact with its upbeat tune, often played by marching bands," Chin said.

Instacart faced added complexity by partnering with brands that were also its advertisers

The concept of Instacart's "We're Here" Super Bowl ad itself had added challenges. Instacart had to carefully manage the intellectual property and brand guidelines of all the partners involved — which also happen to be advertisers on its platform. The company worked with the ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA to produce the ad.

Instacart has also been mindful of those relationships as it extended the campaign beyond the TV spot. In the lead-up to the game, it brought some of the mascots to shows, including "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and the "Today" show. It partnered with Kraft Heinz to have the Wienermobile, driven by the Cheetos mascot, Chester Cheetah, make deliveries in this year's Super Bowl host city, New Orleans, as well as Kansas City and Philadelphia, the hometowns of this year's teams.

"You get this huge benefit of added reach through social, through news coverage," Jones said.

Jones said Instacart would test whether it achieved demonstrable benefits in areas such as unaided awareness and consideration, and whether the campaign produced a measurable lift in gross transaction volume. Instacart will also look at whether the Super Bowl push helps generate revenue for its own advertising business. It's working with its partners to push promotions in the app, such as letting users add a free bag of Cheetos to their orders during game week.

Like many other Super Bowl LIX advertisers, Instacart decided to keep its campaign lighthearted this year.

Jones said the marketing team had considered making a heartstring-puller but felt it would be difficult to stand out. She recalled The Farmer's Dog's "Forever" commercial from the 2023 Super Bowl, which was widely lauded, while other tearjerkers that year weren't as memorable.

Jones said humor served as a great connector, which she hopes will drive affinity for the brand as millions of people tune in Sunday to watch the Chiefs take on the Eagles.

"Humor is something that really plays better in a group," Jones said. "It's more fun to laugh when you're in a group of people than when you're alone in your bed streaming at 11 o'clock at night."

• Humor, nostalgia, and celebrities are set to feature heavily in this year's Super Bowl commercials.
• Brands are aiming for safe, lighthearted ads amid political tensions and economic challenges.
• Data shows Super Bowl advertisers have leaned heavily on celebrities since 2020.

Super Bowl advertisers are leaning into humor, nostalgia, and generous use of celebrities this year as brands look to provide levity — and avoid controversy — in a politically charged year.

Some advertisers have spent more than $8 million to secure 30 seconds of airtime, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider. They asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive sales negotiations; their identity is known to BI. Marketers will have spent many millions more on production, securing A-list celebrity endorsements, and buying online ads. More than 123 million viewers tuned in to last year's Super Bowl, according to TV measurement firm Nielsen.

Amid these high stakes, advertising insiders said brands have been more likely to play it safe in recent years, wary of a backlash and as they look to guarantee a return on their investment. The ads and teasers released so far for Super Bowl LIX appear to follow that trend.

"Since COVID, Super Bowl ads have taken a pretty decisive turn from being fairly edgy, fairly risque, to ones that are much, much more conscious of the national mood, of sentiment, politics — they sort of became very PC, really shying away from anything that could offend anybody," said Sean Muller, CEO of the ad measurement company iSpot.tv.

Marketers are highly attuned to the recent rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across both corporate America and the federal government.

Bud Light famously became embroiled in a wave of conservative backlash after it featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a 2023 social media promotion. Bud Light's Super Bowl spot this year follows a much more familiar beer-marketing playbook. Its "Big Men on Cul-de-sac" ad features comedian Shane Gillis, rapper Post Malone, and twice Super Bowl winner Peyton Manning hosting a raucous backyard party.

"Advertisers are really smart to stay away from politically charged themes at all times, but to the extent that they get into something like that, they really shouldn't be doing it when economic times are tough, or there's something negative in the national mood," said Charles Taylor, Villanova School of Business marketing professor and author of the coming book "Winning the Advertising Game: Lessons from the Super Bowl Ad Champions."

Super Bowl advertisers are playing for laughs this year

Comedy is the resounding theme of this year's crop of Super Bowl commercials. According to Daivid, an AI platform that predicts viewers' likely reactions to ads, 14 of the first 19 ads released online ahead of the game featured "amusement" as their top emotion.

Examples include the "It Hits the Spot" ad for Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which enlisted Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan to humorously recreate the classic deli scene from "When Harry Met Sally." Elsewhere, Adam Brody sounds a Pringles can like a blowing horn to conjure the facial hair off famous mustachioed men, including Chiefs coach Andy Reid, NBA star James Harden, the actor Nick Offerman, and Mr. Potato Head. And Coors Light features a slew of CGI sloths who encapsulate what it's like to have a "case of the Mondays" after staying up late on Super Bowl Sunday.

Brynna Aylward, North America chief creative officer of the ad agency Adam&EveDDB, said the overriding warmth of the ads released so far reflects "the hug that we all need this year."

Advertisers have clamored to feature celebrities

The sheer number of celebrities in the commercial breaks won't go unnoticed.

In 2010, only around one-third of Super Bowl ads featured a celebrity, but according to iSpot.tv, celebrities starred in around 70% of the ads in every Super Bowl since 2020.

"It's a shortcut to get people's attention, to get people really excited, and to really say what your brand stands for in tying it to a personality," DDB's Aylward said.

Keep an eye out for celebrities who appeal to Gen Z — see Nerds with singer-songwriter Shaboozey, for example — as this generation moves further into adulthood and has increased buying power, Aylward added.

Uber Eats' 60-second ad will feature a host of well-known stars: Matthew McConaughey, Charli XCX, Greta Gerwig, Sean Evans, Kevin Bacon, and Martha Stewart — seemingly looking to appeal to viewers of all ages.

"We know most of America tunes in to the Super Bowl, from the hardcore football fans to those who watch exclusively for the ads and everyone in between," said Georgie Jeffreys, Uber's head of marketing for North America. "That's why our Uber Eats campaign for the Big Game this year strives to have a little something for everyone."

Nostalgia in numbers

Other Super Bowl advertisers are betting that nostalgia will ensure their commercial success.

Budweiser's cinematic Clydesdale horses and Doritos, with its user-generated "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, are among the returning advertisers hoping to stir memories of Super Bowls past.

Instacart's first-ever Super Bowl ad features the Jolly Green Giant, Kool-Aid Man, Pillsbury Doughboy, and the Energizer Bunny, among other famous brand characters, joining forces to deliver groceries.

Instacart's chief marketing officer, Laura Jones, said the company didn't want to use a celebrity as a "crutch" and instead wanted to try something different.

"We said, let's actually break the patterns," Jones said. "Let's not do what everyone else is doing. And frankly, it'll either be a huge hit or a huge flop."

Whatever theme marketers opt for, Super Bowl ads have become much more than a 30-second TV ad. There are the teasers, pre-game promotions and competitions, on-the-ground experiences on game day, and then the social media activity that looks to maintain the momentum long after the final whistle.

"Brands are spending so much more money on Super Bowl ads for such a short time; they are trying to maximize this opportunity more than ever," said Minkyung Kim, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

Margaret Johnson, the chief creative officer at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, has worked on Super Bowl campaigns for Cheetos, Pepsi, and E-Trade, among others, in her 29-year tenure at the creative agency. For Super Bowl LIX, the agency has produced campaigns for Doritos and Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Johnson said the Super Bowl is set to remain advertising's tentpole event for years to come.

"It's one of the last remaining collective viewing experiences and, with the impact you can have on culture, I would say 100% it's worth it," Johnson said.

Correction: February 4, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of a brand character appearing in Instacart's ad; it's the Energizer Bunny, not the Duracell Bunny.