The Super Bowl is easily one of the biggest sporting events of the year, attracting almost 100 million viewers in 2022. As the Philadelphia Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs this year, it's an excellent time for outdoor brands to organize a digital marketing campaign surrounding the event.

While your advertising budget may not allow you to shell out millions for a 30-second TV ad during the game, there are still plenty of ways to engage with your audience and generate sales. In this article, we'll explore a few strategies for building a ballin' campaign and an example that we'll let you evaluate. Keep reading!

Get Creative

Given how saturated advertising and marketing efforts can be around the Super Bowl, it's essential to distinguish your brand. Creative assets present the perfect opportunity to do so. Consider playing around with your brand's headlines, copy, and even graphics to fall in line with the football theme. 

Whether you're showing off gear or athleisure, you don't have to sell a product specific to the sport or event itself; it's just about how you show it off. You could even let your fans know what team you're rooting for in a playful way by incorporating team logos or colors into certain ads.

Another way to generate engagement with your audience is through the use of interactive elements. This could mean polls and quizzes on stories or even a custom hashtag. This way, as the event is going on, fans can interact with your brand, expressing their favorite team or tagging a post with the hashtag. 

Capitalize on Urgency Messaging

As a one-day event, the Super Bowl is a short period to generate buzz and run a campaign, so you need to be strategic in communicating with your audience. One great example is to push a limited discount or promotion, which could run until the Super Bowl or even after, depending on your goals. 

Regarding our first point about creativity, your headlines and CTAs in assets should emphasize this urgency messaging, which can be done through phrases like "limited-time" or even sports-specific copy like "beat the clock!"

Segment Your Target Audience

While millions of people engage with the Super Bowl, you should be strategic about how and where you show your ads. In this case, research will be your best friend for navigating who may be interested. Some ways to group your audience include:

Demographic Segmentation: Based on factors such as age and gender.

Psychographic Segmentation: Based on values, interests, attitudes, and lifestyle. Are you seeking die-hard sports fans? People who actively play sports? People who never care about football until the Super Bowl?

Behavioral Segmentation: Based on past behaviors. Are there certain buying habits or consumers of specific products you're looking to target?

Geolocation Segmentation: Based on location, such as the cities hosting the Super Bowl.

An Effective Strategy? You Decide! 

Now, we'll give you an example of an outdoor brand that did things a little differently for Super Bowl 50– and it definitely generated buzz. Marmot, an outdoor apparel retailer, launched a 30-second television ad for the 2016 game, spending the brand's entire year's budget in the process. 

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The video featured Marmot's gear and apparel as a camper and a marmot (a small rodent) go on an outdoor adventure through the mountains. In the end, though, the video takes a twist as the man tries to kiss the Marmot, and the ad copy reads, "fall in love with the outside." It sounds a bit strange, but plenty of media outlets covered the ad (and its quirkiness) after it aired. 

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While shocking ads might not be the best route for your outdoor brand, taking a creative risk can definitely have its payoffs. 

In conclusion, creating a successful Super Bowl campaign for your outdoor brand requires a combination of effective strategies and timeliness. Understanding and segmenting your target audience allows you to create messaging that resonates with them. 

Additionally, being creative with your messaging and advertising is crucial in standing out in the crowded Super Bowl landscape and capturing attention. Lastly, using urgency messaging can help drive sales and encourage people to take action before it's too late.