Being in Canada, I usually have to find creative ways to access the American feed to see the ads that Canadians typically only see after the game. This year, however, was different. The game was presented by YouTube TV and hosted by Fox, which meant I could simply sign up for a free Tubi account to watch the full, high definition US broadcast.

That may sound like a small thing, but in a world where networks guard their feeds like it’s their most valuable asset, the shift is monumental.

Every year for The Brief, we take a look at the Super Bowl, not because the world needs yet another critique of the ads selling cars and chips, but because it’s the one moment when all of the marketing creativity, resources, and new ideas are focused on one screen. That creates a 4-hour snapshot of what’s happening in media and marketing that’s too insightful to pass up, so here’s what we learned about marketing in 2025 from yesterday’s event:

It’s over – Streaming has won

The Super Bowl has long been the pinnacle moment for TV advertising. Every year we marvel at the record breaking fees the networks are able to charge for a 30-second spot. Despite the cost, I still believe it’s one of the best deals in media buying, because it’s the one time that everyone is actually excited to watch the ads, and this is the first year that much of that attention shifted from traditional cable networks to digital steaming services.

Netflix recently streamed the Tyson Paul fight, Amazon now hosts multiple major sports, and now even the Super Bowl has prioritized Tubi and Youtube over its traditional partners. That’s great news for those of us who don’t have Super Bowl-sized advertising budgets.

Until recently, appearing next to people’s favourite shows was a privilege limited to the world’s biggest brands, but the shift to streaming means that anyone with a short video and a few dollars can buy our way into those placements. Technically, the Super Bowl is still sold in the old fashioned way, but nearly every other show that people watch today — whether that’s sports, reality TV, comedy, etc. — happens in a place where ads are purchased using a simple, self-serve interface with extremely low, or no minimums.

That means every one of us can identify the moments and shows our own audiences are excited about, and we can become our own Don Draper – coming up with creative ways to insert our brands into the conversation.

Creators are more powerful than celebrities

Like streaming, this one has been coming for a while, but the sheer volume of influencers and content creators who appeared in this year’s big game ads was staggering.

From @kristinjuszcyzk in a breast cancer awareness ad, to @alix_earle’s throwback hot girl ad with Carl’s Jr., to Poppi’s 30-second spot that was packed with every creator from your FYP, brands have officially recognized that creators are the celebrities of 2025.

What they know, and what we can all apply to our own work, is that the value of the creator goes beyond what you get from a typical celebrity. Celebrities catch people’s attention in the moment, and if we’re lucky, their reputations rub off on our brands. But once we stop spending money on those ads, the benefit falls off.

Creators, on the other hand, offer long-term benefits. Brands that collaborate with creators also gain exposure through the content that creators share with their audiences. Additionally, the audiences who feel a connection to the creators are more likely to share the brand’s content.

Those people share a community with the other people who like and follow that creator, which of course comes with greater risk because they might hate the partnership, but it also comes with greater potential upside.

Pop Culture, as we knew it, is over

The halftime show is a great example. Kendrick Lamar blew away his fans and created a massive moment within the hip hop community with the references and audacity of his performance. And yet, while thousands of TikTok-ers are still analyzing Kendrick’s subtle symbolism, a massive segment of Super Bowl viewers thought the show was a flop.

Once upon a time, we all watched the same handful of TV shows, got our news from the same places, and listened to the same radio stations. Today, each one of us has our own media ecosystems consisting of hand-picked content and sources that make up our own view of what’s happening in the world.

While that has some seriously dangerous implications for media literacy and politics, it creates a similar opportunity for brands. We no longer have to appear in the pages of People magazine or Vogue for our audiences to perceive us as being relevant to pop culture. We have an opportunity to seek out the places and spaces where our people are consuming, creating, and hanging out with each other.

So What?

This year’s Super Bowl reinforced a lot of things we already knew, but may not have landed on such a global stage.

Culture, media, content, and advertising are all fragmented. That means we are no longer competing against every other brand for one main stage, but we have the opportunity to find those cultural fragments and show up in a meaningful, and much less expensive way.

Will we all be appearing during the Super Bowl next year? Of course not, but our communities all have their own Super Bowl moments, and the most creative marketers will find ways to identify them and lean into those opportunities in ways that had never previously been possible.

Check out all of the ads you missed on YouTube’s AdBlitz channel

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