United Airlines has a 50-year history with the U.S. National Football League (NFL) and is currently the official airline for seven NFL teams, including the two that played in this year’s Super Bowl. United also regularly adds extra flights to make it easier for fans to attend big games and added 43 additional direct flights for the 2024 Super Bowl.

With such strong ties to American football, United wanted to use the Super Bowl as an authentic opportunity to reach football fans meaningfully, not in a generic way, moving the needle in strategic areas for the business.

This “Believing Changes Everything” campaign had three goals: capture the greatest Super Bowl share of voice among airlines, outperform the industry standard rate of 56% for positive sentiment and drive ticket sales while reminding viewers that United never charges a change fee on tickets. Ever.

United’s audience is broad and cross-generational, but with two things in common: the love of sports (31% more likely to watch sports on TV; 40% more likely to be sports fans than US population) and the love of their local community. They would not be watching the Super Bowl in the same way as everyone else!

Since it was someone else’s team playing and not their own, the game would have a bitter taste for them. With its background of supporting football and the communities where it flies, United had the opportunity, and credibility, to distribute personalized messages of inspiration with customized 30-second rallying cries in a more effective way, across Orlando, Colorado Springs, Baltimore and Cincinnati and five spots customized for Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Kansas City and Chicago.

That was the unexpected media factor, that was key for a deeper connection with “disappointed fans” that are also United’s customers.

The target audience was Super Bowl viewers, united by a passion for their favorite team and likely to travel for the games.

Media was decentralized, mixing broadcast, OLV and social to materialize the idea regionally and locally. The cost to air a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl averages $7 million. That’s what made United’s fan message personalization even more of a hack: it only spent 20% of its normal Super Bowl ad budget by airing six commercials in targeted local markets.

This strategy also optimized United’s ability to speak directly to local fans through highly pinpointed digital executions and local media outreach.

United teamed up actor Kyle Chandler as a spokesperson, star of the hit TV show “Friday Night Lights,” where he follows the ups and downs of small-town high school football team. His background on understanding the deeper aspects of fandom enhanced the 1:1 approach for media.

The game plan was a four-part social, earned media and broadcast blitz:

Playoffs (January 22)

- Activity: During the playoffs to determine Super Bowl participants, United placed 3 social teasers, one for PR use; and 2 social posts in playoff markets

- Approach: Get people thinking about their fan belief and United’s flight flexibility

Warm Up (February 5)

- Activity: Place one social post per market and issue national and local press releases

- Approach: Declare “Believing Changes Everything” by releasing unique spots in key markets

Game Time (February 11)

- Activity: Place 1 national social post and 1 social post for a prize giveaway in priority markets

- Approach: Reaffirm United’s local market support for NFL fans

Overtime (February 12 and beyond)

- Activity: Place one social post per key moment

- Approach: Stay top of mind during key moments before/during/after the Super Bowl

United scored big with “Believing Changes Everything.” Across its five targeted markets, as well as secondary markets that fielded its general ad, United saw its targeted tactics score points with fans:

-89% airline industry share of voice surrounding the Super Bowl

-YouTube video completion rates ranged from 20% to 37%, well above the 17% benchmark -and the YouTube spots were viewed more than 2.1 million times

-Users on TikTok, Meta and LinkedIn shared the videos nearly 14K times

-10.5K mentions on social media channels

-Positive sentiment ranged from 87% to 100% in the five key markets, well above the 56% industry average

-85+ stories ran in national and local media outlets, including Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Inc., Ad Age, Kansas City Star, Reel Chicago and more

The biggest victory? “Believing Changes Everything” had a direct impact on United’s business - the ad exposed audience purchased tickets totaling $8.7M in sales.