When Roc Nation and the NFL determined that Unhealthy Bunny could be their Tremendous Bowl headliner, the subsequent step was for Apple, the present’s sponsor, to set the technique to hype the halftime present.
Apple has spearheaded the Tremendous Bowl halftime present since 2023, constructing a posh array of promoting, teasers, playlists, and different content material throughout its many platforms for Rihanna (2023), Usher (2024), and Kendrick Lamar (2025). For the reason that begin of this $50-million-per-year sponsorship deal, Apple has handled the halftime present prefer it may be one in every of its merchandise, with all of the marketing and promoting bells and whistles it has at its disposal for issues just like the iPhone and Apple Watch.
And it appears to be working.
Since 2022, Apple Music has grown its subscriber base from 88 million globally to about 108 million. It presently has a few 30% market share of music streaming subscribers within the U.S., compared with Spotify’s 36%. Globally, although, Apple’s market share drops to about 16%—and that is the place the Unhealthy Bunny technique is available in.
The Puerto Rican famous person is among the most-streamed artists on the planet. As quickly as he was introduced, Apple Music launched customized playlists, interviews, and extra to excite followers and educate curious potential new followers. By crafting and selling the Tremendous Bowl halftime present as a worldwide product launch starring such an internationally common artist, Apple is utilizing its broader playbook to increase the footprint of its large recreation funding.
Artist first
After touchdown the halftime performer, the very first thing Apple’s vp of promoting, Tor Myhren, and his group do is sit down with the artist and ask a number of questions: What’s it that you simply wish to get out of this? What would you like this to be? What’s the purpose right here?
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Unhealthy Bunny, is a worldwide famous person and one of many most-streamed artist on the planet. His reply? “This isn’t my halftime present. That is for everybody.”
“We thought that was such an inclusive, optimistic strategy,” Myhren says. “So we simply wrote that on the wall and mentioned, ‘That’s the temporary, so let’s simply make sure that it appears like that is for everybody.’ It is a celebration.”
The celebration theme is in sharp distinction to the reaction from right-wing media and social commentators, and even President Trump himself, since Unhealthy Bunny was introduced because the halftime act in late September. Final week, Trump was requested about him and fellow Tremendous Bowl performers Inexperienced Day. “I’m anti-them,” Trump said. “I believe it’s a horrible selection. All it does is sow hatred. Horrible.”
The fact of Unhealthy Bunny’s message is the precise reverse of hatred. Within the halftime present’s trailer, the artist is seen dancing fortunately with folks of all shades, shapes, and sizes.
Myhren says that this, in essence, is Unhealthy Bunny’s vibe. “He desires it to be constructive. He desires it to be full of optimism.”
And why shouldn’t he? He’s the fourth artist to do the present since Apple took over its sponsorship, and every year it has damaged viewership data. Rihanna’s 2023 present had 121 million, Usher’s had 123.4 million, and Lamar’s performance last year hit 133.5 million viewers.
Oliver Schusser, vp of Apple Music, Sports activities, and Beats, says that the corporate’s relationship with artists makes it perfect for the halftime present. They’ve been working with Unhealthy Bunny since about 2016. “Not like earlier sponsors, we have now such an in depth relationship with the artists that in all 4 years, we had been capable of work actually carefully on how we wish this to be introduced, how we wish it to be rolled out, and what the surprises are,” Schusser says. “And I believe that places us in a really distinctive place, in contrast to another model of this occasion.”
The purpose this 12 months is to globally increase the present. Myhren says Apple is utilizing among the identical techniques it employs to launch new merchandise around the globe to advertise this present.
“When you consider the best way we launch our bodily merchandise—whether or not it’s an out of doors billboard, a movie advert, a small piece in your social feed—they’ve to have the ability to play all over the place,” he says. “They’ve to talk to everybody, which is why we don’t use a variety of dialogue. Music is a common language, so we use that. That’s been actually, actually enjoyable and difficult.”
Measuring success
Apple’s halftime present sponsorship is a five-year deal with the NFL that was signed in September 2022. And identical to any Tremendous Bowl advertiser that wishes you to recollect its large recreation business, Apple desires to ensure everyone knows who’s sponsoring the halftime present. Myhren says that the model measures success in the obvious methods—whole viewership, social impressions, and earned media. Are we watching and are we speaking about it? Three years and three record-breaking audiences later, and the reply is fairly clear.
The model produces a slick pregame press convention for every halftime artist to additional entice music followers. Far past your typical press room desk and mic, it’s extra like a slick talk-show pop-up. The Apple Music platform is filled with a wide range of playlists tailor-made to everybody from Unhealthy Bunny stans to whole n00bs. And all of the video content material, together with the present itself, is offered on Apple TV.
“We’ve discovered methods to only make sure that we’re part of that dialog, which is essential,” Myhren says. “By build up what’s taking place on the platform, we wish folks—whether or not they’re Apple Music subscribers now or potential subscribers—coming to the platform and experiencing what we have now there, particularly round these few weeks.”
Myhren is aware of the query on any marketer’s thoughts is: What are you getting out of this?
“It actually sits on the heart of the most important viewership occasion within the U.S. yearly by a protracted shot. There’s nothing else even shut,” he says. “I believe it’s actually distinctive and completely price each penny.”
