Good morning. Today’s top story was highly requested—we’ve never gotten so many DMs, texts, or emails asking us to chase down a creator story. Glad we’re all on the same page, and now? Let’s give the people what they want.

— Hannah Doyle 

The Strategy That Earned These Creators a Super Bowl Ad

The votes are in: On Monday, film creators Dylan Bradshaw and Nate Norell were announced as the winners of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl Contest—their Abduction Doritos commercial beat thousands of submissions to secure a $1 million prize and a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.

“The Super Bowl is the Oscars of commercials, so it’s a crazy opportunity, but it’s also connected to campaigning,” Bradshaw told us. 

Here’s Bradshaw and Norell’s winning strategy →

Production: The pair took inspiration from Stranger Things and Bradshaw’s sci-fi short film for the story concept. 

• They planned out every frame before shooting with no script or dialogue—a style they learned working for magic creator Zach King in 2021. 

• “We want to honor Zach and one thing we learned about his content doing so well is there is no language barrier,” Norell said.

Promotion: Doritos last held this contest in 2016. TikTok wasn’t available in the US yet, and Shorts and Reels didn’t exist either. The rules were the same this year (most votes wins), but the strategy—leverage short-form video to maximize reach and engagement—differed significantly.

Bradshaw and Norell posted at least 3x/day across their social channels. 

• They shared production BTS and funny sketches, pulled off viral stunts (like eating 30 bags of Doritos), launched challenges, and ended the voting period with a 24-hour livestream that earned over 11,000 shares.

• “Trying to get people to look at something and laugh, maybe give it a like, is one thing,” Norell said. “To turn viewers into actual voters—it’s like we’re running a political campaign. You have to teach them, guide them.”

• Bradshaw and Norell’s promotional content has generated over 20,000 shares and 500K views. 

Keep in mind: Brands pay up to $8 million for a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot, plus upwards of $3 million in production costs.

Abduction will play to millions this Sunday (last year's Super Bowl brought in about 120 million viewers), but the two are most excited about the community they’ve built along the way.

“Who we work with, connect with, every aspect of the crew that came through, and the social media outreach of how many people were rooting us on was nuts,” Norell said. “Dylan and I truly feel like our whole lives led to this moment.”

Production Companies Invest in Women’s Sports

A group of production companies including Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is teaming up with Roku to launch Women's Sports Now, a weekly show hosted by former WNBA player and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream Renee Montgomery, comedian Sarah Tiana, and sports reporter Suzy Shuster.

Context: Women's sports viewership has grown over the last year, with both the WNBA and NWSL reporting record audiences in 2024. 

A significant element of this growing interest in women’s sports? Creators like Caitlin Clark, Livvy Dunne, and Cameron Brink. 

• Clark recently signed an eight-year, $28 million deal with Nike to make her own signature shoe.

• Brink recently launched her own podcast with Sydel Curry-Lee.

While we’re here: Disney+ and ESPN are reportedly developing a women's sports show similar to SportsCenter.

Platform Roundup: Instagram’s Facelift, LinkedIn’s Video Play

A handful of platforms are targeting the way creators’ content looks and feels across social →

Google launched a “.channel” domain for creators to set up online storefronts and present cohesive branding across platforms.

Instagram is changing up creators’ profile pages, putting highlights in a tab and allowing creators to rearrange their grid posts.

LinkedIn has added a handful of new video tools to increase engagement on video content. Video viewership has increased 36% over the last year on the platform.

🔥 Press Worthy

• IShowSpeed and Kai Cenat are playing each other in an NFL flag football match ahead of the Super Bowl.

• YouTube is rebranding its Community tab as “Posts.”

• Arts creator Moriah Elizabeth is launching fragrance body mist.

• Khaby Lame is now a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

• Comedy creators Ted Nivison and Tucker Keane start a new podcast, Take it Easy.

• Former President Joe Biden signs with CAA.