Every year, the Super Bowl reminds us why it’s still the biggest stage in marketing. The top‑ranked spots this year, according to the USA Today Ad Meter, did what the best Super Bowl spots always do: They entertained, they sparked emotion and made us feel something about a brand in a very short window of time.
But the brands that really understand this moment each year know the spot itself isn’t the whole story. It’s the spark.
Drew Holmgreen, CAS
President & CEO, PPAI
What comes next is where branded merch earns its place, not as a nice add‑on, but as a core marketing channel that works alongside TV, social and digital to amplify a brand’s voice and deepen emotional connection with the people it’s trying to reach.
One of the best examples of this in recent years this is Dunkin’, but not for its Good Will Dunkin’ ad during Super Bowl LX, which featured countless celebrities known for their Boston roots. It’s actually the campaign from two years ago, featuring the DunKings storyline, that earned an extended spot in the memory holy.
The DunKings – featuring some of those same Beantown celebs donning custom Dunkin’ tracksuits – didn’t just live during the broadcast, but showed up in closets, gyms and social feeds. After the Super Bowl spot aired, Dunkin’ made it easy for fans to step into the moment themselves by dropping limited‑edition tracksuits through its own merch platform.
You could watch the ad and immediately understand why the merch existed. It made the joke tangible, wearable and participatory. This was a classic example of branded merch amplifying the campaign and extending the relationship, not just joining for the ride.
Budweiser has been doing this for decades, long before anyone used the phrase “media mix.” The Clydesdales remain one of the most emotionally resonant Super Bowl icons, but their real power shows up year after year in physical form. Budweiser makes apparel, barware and collectibles available directly through the brand, giving fans a touchpoint. The ad sets the emotional tone, but the branded merch gives that emotion somewhere to live. Fans don’t just remember the spot, they keep interacting with it. In the process, they remind other people they run into a reference and endorsement. They build community.
This is where branded merch deserves a reframe. It isn’t complementary. It isn’t a supplemental afterthought. It’s critical.
Channeling this idea is the heart of PPAI’s new 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, our vision statement: Branded merchandise is the premier marketing channel that Powers Lasting Connections.
It’s one we hope the entire industry will join us by living and working toward. We’ll go farther together.
This weekend’s big game was, as always, a great testament to the power of advertising as a whole. And it’s true that some of the most memorable Super Bowl ads ever didn’t have a branded merch strategy at all.
You may remember Nationwide’s MC Hammer and Kevin Federline “Life Comes At Your Fast” spots, ads that became part of pop culture and are still passed around online today. They worked. They were entertaining. They owned the moment. I was at the agency creating those ads for Nationwide, and what stands out looking back isn’t what those campaigns lacked, but how much the opportunity has expanded since then.
Those Nationwide spots are a great reminder of how powerful a Super Bowl moment can be on its own, and how much more runway brands have now to extend that moment. Today, branded merch is having a real moment of its own. Not because brands need more products, but because they’re recognizing how effective merch can be at carrying emotion forward, turning awareness into ownership and giving people a way to keep participating in a story they already connected with.
A Super Bowl spot creates a shared cultural moment at massive scale. But branded merch takes that moment and makes it personal. It’s tactile. It’s repeatable. It shows up again and again in someone’s real life – on a morning coffee run, at the gym, in an airport or folded into a favorite drawer at home.
PREMIUM RESEARCH: Advertising Spend, Likeability & Recall By Medium
PPAI research consistently shows that people keep branded merch for extended periods and remember the brands attached to the piece. That matters because memory plus emotion is where real brand affinity is built. A hoodie worn for years or a tumbler used every morning isn’t just generating impressions, it’s creating ongoing, positive sentiment for a brand that already made you feel something once.
And there’s joy in that. Real joy.
The best branded merch doesn’t just remind you of a campaign. It makes you smile when you put it on or pick it up. It becomes part of your routine, your identity, your story with the brand. That’s something no single media placement, even with 130 million people tuned in, can do on its own.
Branded merch is media people actively seek out. Unlike a spot you happen to catch during a break (if you’re not making a restroom or buffalo chicken dip run), merch is chosen. It’s clicked on, waited for and worn or used with intent. That makes it fundamentally different from passive exposure and incredibly powerful.
When someone goes looking for a piece of merch, they’re raising their hand and saying, I want more of this brand in my life. That’s the opportunity in front of us and in front of every brand, large and small, right now.
The Super Bowl will always be about big moments. The brands that win beyond the rankings are the ones that understand how to turn those moments into something people actively opt into and carry forward with them.
That’s why branded merch isn’t just what comes after the ad.
It’s how the story keeps going, by choice.
