automotive

How Toyota Will Show Up For Super Bowl Season

No official Super Bowl ad? No problem. Toyota is parlaying its longstanding support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and more recent (since 2023) official sponsorship of the NFL, into a marketing strategy.  

The automaker doesn’t advertise during every Super Bowl telecast -- it sat out 2023, for example -- and “this year’s timing did not align for our brand,” a Toyota spokesperson told Marketing Daily.

Still, aligning with football experience during Super Bowl season is very much in its marketing tool kit.

Leveraging its relationships with the NFL and its players, “Toyota’s Super Bowl LIX plans celebrate all levels of stardom -- spanning youth leagues, high schools, HBCUs, up to the brand’s current star NFL players -- and amplifies the spirit of the campaign released earlier this NFL season, ‘We Roll Deep Anthem,’” according to the automaker.

advertisement

advertisement

So here’s what’s on tap in the lead-up to Super Bowl Sunday:

On Feb. 2, Toyota will sponsor the first-ever “NFL Flag HBCU Tournament” at this year’s Pro Bowl Games in Orlando. Two-hundred-and-fifty athletes from 16 teams will participate, and Toyota is promising that they will “get the same NFL star treatment as the Pro Bowl's top football players.”

Moving to the site of the Super Bowl itself, New Orleans, Toyota’s “Glow Up Classic” aims to encourage youth sports with the first-ever flag football exhibition games, to be played in darkness while glow-in-the-dark technology lights up uniforms and equipment. The games are meant to spotlight that financial constraints limit Orleans Parish kids’ sports participation to only 20%. Following the event, Toyota will install permanent lights at New Orleans’ 18th Ward Field, “transforming it into a lasting beacon for community sports.”

And adjacent to the game, from Feb. 5-8, Toyota will sponsor an event at Super Bowl Experience, the annual interactive theme park at the Big Game. Fans can "ride shotgun" with Team Toyota athletes in augmented reality scenes that simulate driving alongside such players as Brock Purdy (49ers), Christian Gonzalez (Patriots), or longtime Toyota spokesperson Eli Manning.

The AR capabilities will be featured inside Toyota’s 2025 Sequoia and Land Cruiser.

Lastly, on Feb. 6, two youth athletes will receive  the “NFL FLAG Players of the Year Presented by Toyota Award” for personifying the values of NFL FLAG both on and off the field.  Winners will later attend Super Bowl LIX on behalf of Toyota. 

Toyota serves as a presenting sponsor for NFL Flag, with local dealers supporting 1,800 local leagues in non-contact football.

Each activation will feature new Toyota vehicles on-site for participants to check out, including the Tacoma TRD Pro Hybrid, Sequoia Capstone, Tailgate Tundra, and 4Runner TRD Pro.

Next story loading loading..