Meanwhile, through Sept. 23, Fast Twitch is running an in-store contest that asks shoppers to scan a QR code for a chance to win a prize bundle that includes tickets to three NFL regular season games. Those less inclined to get off the couch can visit FastTwitchWinBig.com to enter for a chance to take home a daily prize or a larger grand prize. The 49ers’ Kittle is an endorser and has already given Fast Twitch some real estate on his Instagram.
PepsiCo
If you’re getting substantial impact out of an NFL ad (and paying a premium for it), you may as well pack as much into it as possible. PepsiCo put its Frito-Lay snacks and its beverage brands into a 60-second spot featuring former NFL stars Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Dan Marino, Tom Brady and Julian Edelman returning to the game as current Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen—who PepsiCo just signed to a multi-year partnership—looks on.
The campaign, “Unretirement,” debuted during the first installment of NBC’s Sunday Night Football and required Marino to break out reading glasses to call plays and Rice to ask a food vendor in the stands for a senior discount. Considering that NBC charged brands roughly $830,000 for every 30 seconds of ad time during its Sunday night broadcasts last year, according to Nielsen, PepsiCo can’t be blamed for fitting as many brands and jokes about Smith’s sleeping habits as possible into its precious minute.
T-Mobile
Patrick Mahomes just led the Chiefs to a Super Bowl title in February and is one of the most recognizable athletes in the United States. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t his only appearance on this list.
T-Mobile’s spot uses one of the NFL’s biggest names to not only sell its Go5G Next plan—with help from Chronicles of Narnia actor Ben Barnes—but to ambush the NFL’s official wireless sponsor, Verizon. With its rival imposing its presence on NFL broadcasts, T-Mobile launched its 30-second Mahomes spot during a primetime episode of NBC’s Law & Order SVU and flooded cable networks including Adult Swim, A&E, BET, Bravo, Comedy Central, Discovery, E!, Hallmark, HGTV, TLC and USA.
And while the NFL’s opening weekend games were somewhat closed off to T-Mobile’s Mahomes ads, the company exploited its sponsorship of Mexico’s Liga MX soccer to air spots through all of the weekend’s matches.
Delta Air Lines
Tom Brady is out of the NFL, but just getting started at Delta.
Instead of throwing Brady in an ad or centering a campaign on him, Delta picked the NFL’s opening week to announce that the seven-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Super Bowl MVP would be joining the airline as a “long-term strategic adviser.”
