Show notes
The Super Bowl isn’t just football—it’s the biggest advertising marketplace in American TV. Kate Scott-Dawkins (live from Levi’s Stadium) joins Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah to break down Super Bowl commercials, the cost of Super Bowl ads, and why brands still pay for the last truly mass, shared TV moment.They also unpack a major earnings week—Amazon, Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Uber, Disney, and Fox—and the theme cutting across everything: AI investment and rising capex, plus what it means for retail media, streaming ads, and sports rights economics.Topics include: Super Bowl ad “hacks” (prediction markets and skywriting), the “AI Super Bowl” creative playbook, Amazon advertising and Prime Video, Google search growth and retail ad spend, Uber’s $2B ads run-rate and AV data partnerships, Disney’s shifting profit mix, Fox/Tubi growth, and why sports rights keep squeezing margins.0:00 – Intro: inside Levi’s Stadium vs the “advertising Super Bowl” at home01:22 – Watching the game + what commercial breaks feel like in-stadium02:34 – Prediction markets ad ban: Kalshi skywriting and “hacking” the Super Bowl04:00 – San Francisco OOH: why every billboard says “AI”04:39 – Super Bowl creative takeaways: Gemini, Alexa, celebrities05:53 – Halftime show moments and cultural impact07:05 – Early ratings chatter + why this reach is hard to replicate08:17 – The reach math: what it would cost to match Super Bowl scale elsewhere09:23 – Retail/commerce media: Walmart’s milestone and resilient growth10:31 – Amazon results: ads, Prime Video, and audience scale11:31 – AI capex surge: 2025 vs 2026 spending acceleration12:07 – Alphabet/Google: $400B year, search growth, YouTube signals, CapEx jump16:13 – Uber: $2B ads run-rate, AV strategy, Nvidia partnership, expansion20:01 – Disney: earnings, streaming economics, and CEO succession signals25:18 – Fox: sports rights pressure, Tubi growth, and ad category strength29:44 – Europe: AI adoption in marketing/sales and budget implications32:25 – Wrap-up + what to watch next (Snap note)