Following up a massive success can be a daunting task, whether you’re talking about music or sports. Just ask the 1970 Boston Celtics or Dr. Dre’s The Aftermath.
Last year, in the first of a five-year deal with the NFL, Apple worked with Roc Nation and Rihanna to create the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show ever. Beyond just the size of the audience—more than 121 million viewers—the stunning show was celebrated and praised by fans and critics alike as one of the big game’s most entertaining. It won Emmys. It was also Rihanna’s first live performance in seven years, and the global superstar revealed she was pregnant during the actual show.
So now, a year later, the question is, how do you follow that?
The answer for Apple is, you don’t. Sort of. Last year, Apple’s vice president of marketing Tor Myhren told me that they approached the halftime show as they would any major product launch. Now this year, the halftime show with Usher is a completely different product. Apples and oranges. Vision Pros and iPads.
“The halftime show is the product, and Usher is the feature to bring it to life,” says Myhren when we reconnected this week. “We have a lot to live up to from last year, but the most important thing about our approach is that we don’t ever want this to be cookie cutter. We want this to be absolutely bespoke to whoever that artist is, and make everything look and feel and sound like it’s coming from them.”
Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats, says the measure of success won’t be about comparing this year to last year. “Our mission is to work with the NFL and Roc Nation to make the halftime show bigger and more global, and a longer event,” says Schusser. “We want it to be about more than just that Sunday night. There is a bigger story to tell before and after.”
This is where Apple really shines, both in its marketing but also in its ability to create content and integrate Usher and the halftime show into its music products.
Moments after Usher was announced as the featured performer back in September, he was in Apple’s Paris radio studio talking to Zane Lowe about it. It also used the announcement to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Usher’s hit album Confessions, with a series of social videos that use the original “Confessions Pt. II” music video’s intro to hype his halftime show, featuring Kim Kardashian, Marshawn Lynch, Coach Prime, and even present-day Usher himself.
As we’ve gotten closer to kickoff, there’s the “My Road to Halftime” feature on Apple Music, which includes an Usher-produced playlist, as well as playlists curated by such NFL players as Travis Kelce, Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, and Damar Hamlin. Jermaine Dupri has produced an exclusive Usher megamix for Apple Music. For fans unfamiliar with the artist’s 30-year career, Apple Music created an editorial feature on Apple Music called “The Story of Usher in 20 Songs.” Apple Maps will feature a special Guide to Las Vegas, while its Fitness Plus app just launched a special Super Bowl halftime show workout mix collection, featuring Usher along with past halftime performers. Apple Music will also be broadcasting from a pop-up radio studio set up in Las Vegas for artists, athletes, and other celebrities to stop by, adding another content element for its radio hosts, including Lowe, Ebro Darden, Nadeska Alexis, Eddie Francis, and Dotty.
Perhaps the signature piece of marketing leading up to the Super Bowl is a new eight-minute short film called “Where’s Usher?” Starring everyone from Apple CEO Tim Cook to Ludacris, Taraji P. Henson, and Lil Jon, it’s a mystery romp through Vegas after the artist disappears right before the big day.
It’s exactly the type of thing you’d expect from Apple, given its pedigree in creating short films that somehow master the balance between product demo and emotion. Think it’s 2013 holiday ad, its annual films to mark Chinese New Year, or its great, sitcom-like ongoing workplace series “The Underdogs.”
Myhren says the goal for all its halftime show marketing is to reflect the spirit of Usher and his fans. “Usher is the perfect artist for a Super Bowl in Las Vegas, so we really looked at it as, let’s bring what everyone knows and feels about Usher to life through this marketing,” says Myhren. “I think that in any of Apple’s marketing, we really want to entertain, and we want to educate. The education part comes with the product, and the entertainment comes with the filmmaking or the storytelling. However, I think it’s a big miss if you just do one without the other.”
Reflecting on last year, Myhren says that it’s difficult to measure an event like a Super Bowl halftime show as a piece of brand marketing. “The metrics are impossible, there’s no way to just look at it, write down the data, and say, this was a success,” he says. “Like a lot of the things we do in marketing, I think you have to feel it in your gut. Did this work for us? Does this feel right?”
If the chemistry is wrong, with big brands and bigger egos trying to control the direction of ideas, the end result can suffer. Myhren says the key to a successful outcome is getting that chemistry right. “When it was the NFL, Rihanna, and Apple, it was a pretty great group of partners that felt really authentic,” he says. “Same thing with Usher. These are big brands that all really chase excellence, care about craft, and the experience of—in our case, the customer—and in Usher’s case, the fans. So I think all these things go together really well.”
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