Culture Snapshot
Marketer's Playbook
What We Learned from 2026 LX Super Bowl
Culture Snapshot
2026 — The Year of the Unicorn
Known as the 'Year of the Unicorn' due to the unprecedented coincidence of major global events — the Winter Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, and the 60th Super Bowl — media attention has become the most valuable and contested asset of 2026.
The 60th Super Bowl marks a significant shift in broadcasting, integrating streaming platforms and social media to transform a 30-second commercial into a three-month transmedia campaign. Advertising investment reached record figures, with NBCUniversal reporting all advertising slots fully booked by September 2025, despite prices reaching $8-10M per 30-second spot.
Culture Snapshot
The Event in Numbers
This increase of almost 15% compared to 2025 (and 39% in five years) in ad rates is attributed not only to inflation but also to competition from new sectors with high liquidity, such as AI and pharmaceutical companies.
Sources: Nielsen Ratings, NBCUniversal Ad Sales Reports, EDO Inc. Analysis
USD $13M to $26M.
The true cost of winning the Super Bowl includes more than just the ad airtime fee: The total investment per spot, encompassing creative production, celebrity fees, social media amplification, and pre-game marketing, ranges from USD $13M to $26M.
The value generated for every dollar invested has increased from $2.70 in 2020 to $5.20 in 2026. This shows that ads act as triggers that drive consumers toward searches, downloads, and discussions on social media, where the value of earned media can be greater than that of paid media.
Sources: Kantar Media, EDO Inc., NBCUniversal
Blog Post | Fun Stuff | February 04, 2026
Dunkin' Drops Another Big Game Teaser on MIT Campus: Rewind to 1995
This week, Dunkin' is pressing rewind with a limited-time '90s pop-up on Massachusetts Institute of Technology's campus.
Culture Snapshot
2026 Top Players
Super Bowl LX will be remembered as the turning point where Artificial Intelligence went from being a topic of conversation to becoming a key production tool and the main character in many narratives.
Discover which brands won the effectiveness race, which narratives dominated, and the 5 key lessons every marketer needs to know...
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