The advertising space in the Super Bowl is crowded with the world’s largest brands, all fighting for attention. To break through the clutter of the event, Intel took a different route and became part of the show itself.

We partnered with Lady Gaga, the NFL, and Pepsi to create a custom drone light show that kicked off Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. We launched 300 drones over Houston’s NRG Stadium during Lady Gaga’s opening number, seamlessly integrating our technology with her performance.

We conveyed an entirely new application for our drones in front of an audience of 150 million people, during the most-viewed segment of the Super Bowl, and created the first drone integration on television.

On February 5, 2017, the drone light show aired on live television with 150 million viewers watching. Moments after the show, we launched a broadcast spot to provide brand attribution. We also launched real-time content on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which kept fans engaged after the event.

In the week following the event, the drone performance gained significant media coverage in a variety of news, sports, technology, and music publications. With the drones capturing the world’s attention, we launched an additional film on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which gave viewers a peek behind the scenes and showed how the show came to life.

An estimated 150 million people watched the Super Bowl Halftime Show live, and the performance has gained almost 30 million views on YouTube. Within the Super Bowl broadcast, the drone light show generated the highest aided-awareness ad recall at 53%. The show garnered 4.9 billion potential impressions through article and broadcast clip mentions, including over 950 feature articles and over 1,200 media hits.

During the Super Bowl, the world’s largest brands fight for attention in the event’s crowded advertising space. Intel took a different approach and became part of the show itself. We partnered with Lady Gaga, NFL, and Pepsi to create a drone light show that kicked off Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. The light show integrated 300 drones with the event and demonstrated an entirely new application of drone technology to 150 million people. This helped change the perspective of drones, from a delivery and military technology, to one designed for entertainment. It was the first drone integration on television.

Intel’s strategy was to create awareness and garner brand credit for the first drone integration in a Super Bowl Halftime Show, delivering on the brand promise that Intel makes amazing experiences possible. Our target audience was Super Bowl viewers and the broader U.S. market.

In 2017, Intel went to the biggest televised event in America, the Super Bowl, with one goal: use Intel technology to create an experience unlike anything the world has seen before and change people’s perceptions of what that technology can do.