Drew Barrymore, Sir Patrick Stewart, Peppa Pig. You name it; the Paramount+ Super Bowl promo has it.
The subscription service, which is streaming the Super Bowl on Sunday (and whose sister broadcaster CBS is also airing the game) is using the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers to promote its service with a spot that features a wide cast of characters—both human and cartoon—from its programming slate.
In the two-minute ad, the crew of characters tries to scale Paramount Mountain, a continuation of the streamer’s long-running “Mountain of Entertainment” promotional campaign. Upon reaching a difficult pass, Stewart, who stars in Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard, attempts to throw Arnold, from the show Hey Arnold!, over the mountain and use him as an anchor to help the rest of the crew up the mountain.
The agency Droga5 led the work on the spot with support from Paramount’s internal marketing and creative team, with Parliament providing VFX support.
“The star power really shows off the total household offering—this idea of something for everyone,” Terry Minogue, EVP of creative marketing at Paramount Streaming, said.
According to Minogue, the spot will air not only during Sunday’s broadcast, but will also have a digital push beforehand and “pretty significant media placement beyond the Super Bowl.”
The ad is part of a larger promotional effort to help Paramount+ stand out among formidable competition in the streaming space. The brand, as well as Paramount-owned free streamer Pluto TV (which will also be promoted during the game) will have a “significant presence” on the Las Vegas Sphere, Minogue said, and this week, Paramount’s programming library is being promoted at “Expedition Vegas,” an activation on the Las Vegas Strip, where fans can see Paramount Mountain IRL and get closer to Paramount’s shows and movies through exhibits, photo ops, a spa suite, and a “hyperrealistic gondola lift,” among other activities.
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Football head: The NFL is “a gigantic platform for us,” Minogue said. “In advertising and culture, it’s sort of one of the only monocultures left.”
Throughout the NFL season, Paramount has promoted the streamer and its shows and movies, including airing a trailer for the second season of Paramount+ original series Halo during the AFC Championship Game. A spot that featured Peppa Pig and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen aired during the wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Bills, and Peppa herself attended the Bills-Chiefs game the following week.
“Bills fans really embraced Peppa Pig and memes about how the Chiefs have Taylor Swift, and the Bills have Peppa Pig,” Minogue said.
In addition to advertising during NFL games, Paramount+ has also sought to attract viewers to its platform by streaming the games themselves. Last month’s AFC Championship game, which streamed on the platform, became its most-streamed live event ever, the company recently shared in a press release.
Join the pack: Rival streamers Netflix and Max will have an IRL presence alongside Verizon this week, hosting events at a Las Vegas activation called “Verizon Live at Super Bowl LVIII.”
Second down: This isn’t Paramount+’s first Super Bowl presence. An ad promoting the streamer that also featured Stewart aired in the 2021 Super Bowl the month before Paramount+’s March 2021 rollout, and last year, Sylvester Stallone appeared on Paramount Mountain.