Last year, the makeup brand NYX Professional Makeup released its first Super Bowl ad, a memorably raunchy campaign featuring Cardi B. Now, the brand is back with its second Super Bowl campaign called The Big Fat Kiss.
The campaign, which this year does not include an actual TV spot, is themed around what NYX is calling “The Big Fat Kiss.” The social-first campaign plays on the big celebratory moments that come after a victory in a major sports events. Think: Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce’s famous kiss after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2023.
“We know that women are tuning into the Super Bowl in record numbers,” said Yasmin Dastmalchi, gm of the U.S. for NYX. Last year’s Super Bowl brought in the most women viewers ever, at 58.8 million. “We’re all about tapping into culture, whether that’s entertainment or sports, and trying to be right in the middle of those big moments.”
While NYX’s previous sports marketing plays have been through more traditional means like TV spots or sponsorships of athletes like basketball player JuJu Watkins, the new campaign takes a different approach. In addition to a social campaign with influencer Brittany Broski (1.9 million Instagram followers), NYX is partnering with the sports betting platform DraftKings.
As part of the campaign, NYX is sponsoring a number of free-to-play contest on DraftKings related to predictions like which athletes will be shown kissing their partners after the game. The prizes for these competitions will be up to $60,000.
Sports betting has rapidly become a massive cultural and financial force in professional sports. The Supreme Court struck down a law forbidding sports betting in 2018, and platforms like DraftKings and ESPN Bet have flourished in the interim. FanDuel, another platform, tripled its revenue last year. The total market is now upward of $120 billion in annual bets.
And while men are the primary users of platforms like DraftKings, women are on such platforms, as well. 2021 data from the New York Council on Problem Gambling found that 28% of men in the state bet on sports apps and 12% of women do the same.
“It’s an unexpected collaboration for sure,” Dastmalchi said. “We’re the first makeup brand to work with them. We’re always looking for ways to be where our customers are and put ourselves in the middle of these cultural moments, and this was a good opportunity.”
Dastmalchi said sports, in general, have continued to be a source of interest for NYX. In addition to the Super Bowl ads and its work with JuJu Watkins, it has also sponsored the WNBA team New York Liberty and hosted activations at the games of Angel City FC, a women’s professional soccer team in Los Angeles.
NYX’s parent company, L’Oreal, has seen continued growth in the U.S. in recent quarters, with North American revenue up 4.3% at the end of 2024.
