From Big Celebs to Mommy Bloggers: How Creators and Brands Worked Together on Social for the Super Bowl

The Big Game has come and gone, and with it another championship for the New England Patriots. Football aside, Super Bowl advertising — both on TV and social media — is an event in and of itself. And these days it’s not just about the big name celebrities; brands are working with smaller creators to reach new audiences. We partnered with CreatorIQ, a platform that connects brands and agencies to creators, to look into some of the Instagram and Twitter posts that created high engagement around Super Bowl campaigns leading up to kick off. Budweiser made early waves with a commercial announcing its move to wind power, featuring a dalmatian, ears blowing in the wind, riding atop a wagon pulled by brand’s iconic Clydesdale horses. The beer behemoth leveraged dog-focused creators on Instagram to promote a special “pup-up” in NYC, complete with photo-op stations for the furry friends. The result was some adorable sponsored Instagram posts with respectable engagement rates.Milo & Odys (876 Instagram followers) - 9.99% engagement rate Dog Friendly Club (944 Instagram followers) - 5.81% engagement rateMichelob took a different route, focusing on the food (because really, the Super Bowl is as much about eating as watching). Food and lifestyle blogger Living the Gourmet (2,935 Instagram followers) showcased a caper, olive and artichoke pizza as the perfect compliment to a Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold. The image post snagged a 17.83% engagement rate, higher than the creator’s 90 day Instagram average of 12.49%, according to CreatorIQ’s analytics. Style and fashion creator Mr Batlle (414K Instagram followers) got a 4.32% engagement rate (higher than the account’s 3.36% average) for a video post showing how he made guacamole and chips with peppers to go alongside his ULTRA Pure Gold.  Mom blogger Deborah Brooks (4,497 Instagram followers) paired her ULTRA Pure Gold with jalapeño popper dip and received a 4.11% engagement rate.  Pizza Hut and Pepsi teamed up alongside celebs and smaller creators in December to promote a chance to win tickets to the game. Family-focused creator @KatiePie7 (94.7K Twitter followers) of parent duo Cullen and Katie encouraged people to share pictures of their family “homegates.” The Twitter post received 0.31% engagement rate, higher than her average engagement rate of 0.11%. The companies also worked with L.A. Rams running back Todd Gurley (1.6 million Instagram followers) on a sponsored Instagram video that had a 0.56% engagement rate. More recently, dad blogger Lou Canellis (3,210 Instagram followers) got a 10.89% engagement rate on his post promoting a contest where the first baby born during the big game could win free pizza and 2020 Super Bowl tickets. Skittles also saw success partnering with an NFL star — the Instagram post from George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers (127K Instagram followers) had a 13.69% engagement rate, just below his average Instagram engagement rate of 13.78%. The candy brand also worked with singer/actor Todrick Hall (1.2 million Instagram followers) to promote Skittles The Musical in a post that had a 0.52% engagement rate.Avocados from Mexico worked with mom blogger Kathy Hodson (23.5K Instagram followers) to show off spicy chicken and avocado Mexican pizza in post that received a 1.1% engagement rate, higher than her average of 0.65%. Creator Living the Gourmet (6K Twitter followers) makes a second appearance in our social roundup, with a Twitter post sharing the official M&Ms Super Bowl spot starring Christina Applegate. The tweet had an engagement rate of 1.55%. A fan account for Christina Applegate which has 45K Instagram followers also had a sponsored post promoting her work with M&Ms, which garnered a 0.88% engagement rate. Mr. Peanut’s Super Bowl commercial starred Charlie Sheen (11.5 million Twitter followers) and A-Rod (aka Alex Rodriguez, 1.21 million Twitter followers), and both celebs promoted it on Twitter, with A-Rod’s post getting an engagement rate of 0.05% and Charlie Sheen’s post getting a 0.02% engagement rate.