Introduction
For decades the Super Bowl ad was the domain of A-list celebrities and seven-figure film budgets. In 2025 that changed. Creators did not just react to the spots online, they fronted them, with a soda brand handing its in-game commercial to TikTok stars and a telecom giant swapping a megastar for a squad of creators. The most-watched ad slot on earth has become a creator stage, with the playbook still being written.
Here is why creators own the moment now, the standout team-ups, the honest case for and against, the lessons, plus how to pick the creators behind them.
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Why creators own it now
The Big Game and the second screen have merged, which plays straight into a creator's hands. A few forces drive it.
- Creators stepped into the ads. In 2025 they starred in spots rather than only amplifying them afterward.
- The base keeps growing. By one count 148 brands activated creators in Super Bowl week 2025, up from 103 a year earlier.
- Dual-screen attention. Fans scroll while they watch, so a creator blitz catches eyes the ad alone misses.
- Niche at scale. Many subculture-specific creators can beat one mass-market message.
The moments
A spread of 2025 creator team-ups, from in-ad starring roles to second-screen blitzes. Figures are reported by third parties.
| Brand | Creator moment |
|---|---|
| Poppi | Built its in-game ad around social stars like Alix Earle and Jake Shane |
| Verizon | Replaced its previous celebrity face with a squad of creators |
| Hellmann's | Featured Alix Earle alongside an experiential activation |
| Uber Eats | Paired its TV spot with a TikTok micro-influencer blitz |
| e.l.f. and Instacart | Leaned into social-first stunts beyond the broadcast |
Campaign details and figures attributed to public coverage (CreatorIQ, Aspire, Viral Nation, AdAge).
The honest case
Creators are not a guaranteed Big Game win, so it is worth holding both sides up fairly.
The lessons
You do not need a Super Bowl budget to borrow its creator playbook. The principles travel to any cultural moment.
Go deep in the niche, working with many creators who each own a specific subculture rather than betting on one mass message, since that is where the relevance lives. Plan beyond game day, using pre-game teasers and post-game buzz to stretch a single moment into weeks of attention. Think dual-screen, designing for the fan scrolling a feed while the event plays. And match the creator to a real audience, because at this cost and speed, a poorly chosen voice is an expensive miss.
How Flinque helps
The whole creator-led approach rests on one fragile assumption: that the creators you pick truly fit the subcultures you are targeting and have real audiences behind them. Get a few wrong and a multi-creator blitz turns into expensive noise.
Flinque is one option for de-risking the picks. It surfaces creators on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X by niche and audience, letting you assemble a roster mapped to the exact subcultures you want, with a fake follower check and engagement benchmark confirming each audience is real. That matters most when you are activating many creators at once on a tight clock. Coverage stretches to 10M+ verified creators across 25+ countries, on a free plan to start, then $49 monthly. Build the roster on relevance, verify it on data.
Building a creator-led campaign? Pick the right niche voices.
Flinque is creator discovery and vetting from $49/mo. Find creators by niche and audience, run a fake follower check and benchmark engagement. Start free with no credit card.