Fans descended on San Francisco’s Moscone Center for the Super Bowl Experience, presented by Jersey Mike’s, Feb. 3-7, with exhibit halls packed with opportunities for meet-and-greets with NFL players and legends, football skills engagements, and freebies from brands. The convention center’s multistory setup created quite a spread for the booths, but the vibe still felt at capacity when we explored the floors on Feb. 7 (Saturday is always SBX’s busiest day).
The NFL’s 32 teams were well represented by fans sporting their favorite jerseys, and while pride for the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots appeared strong, they were vastly outnumbered by fans of the hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, with queues created specifically for the 49ers’ uniform photo op that attendees can usually just walk up to. Toyota’s in-booth Fandom Meter actually ranked the top three represented teams as the 49ers, the Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers.
With fandom around every corner, we rounded up the top 12 experiences that resonated with fans and drove hype around the Big Game. And trend alert: More brands seem to be creating experiential threads to their big-spend commercial campaigns. (Check out our video tour of Super Bowl LX Experience on Instagram.)
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America250
With this July 4 marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America250 is traveling around the country to commemorate the upcoming milestone. The national nonpartisan organization made a stop at the Super Bowl LX Experience to invite attendees to record a birthday message for America. In front of its branded Airstream, participants could don Uncle Sam-inspired foam hats and helmets and record their video message. Lots of “Kickoff Energy” to go around.
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association deployed its Nation of Lifesavers Mobile CPR Unit to SBX to teach fans how to save a life. Qualified CPR trainers provided Hands-Only CPR instruction to attendees who walked into the booth ready to learn. They came away with knowledge of the correct rate and depth of CPR compressions needed to join the association’s Nation of Lifesavers movement, which aims to double survival rates by 2030.
Invisalign Smile Zone
The Invisalign Smile Zone was packed when we showed up on the scene, as kids took over the adjacent Play Football Field, presented by Invisalign, for flag football skills drills. Inside the illuminated “confidence clicked in” booth, young fans lined up for their turn to jump into a blue foam pit photo op.
Throughout the week, Invisalign hosted several events with NFL stars, including a Flag Football Experience with Boys & Girls Clubs of America led by 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, Confidence Confirmations with designer and WAG Kristin Juszczyk, Brand & Scan Live with general practitioners and orthodontists, and Girls Flag Football Empowerment Day with flag football quarterback Diana Flores and flag football player Ashlea Klam. (Agency: Zeno Group, p.r.)
Jersey Mike’s
Jersey Mike’s brought the Jersey Shore to the Bay Area with an interactive footprint designed to look like a pier, complete with a lighthouse, sandy carpet, beachy backdrops, fishing games, surfing simulators, photo moments and, of course, a free sub station. (Agencies: LDJ Productions; Van Wagner X)
Lowe’s Earn Your Sunday Tour
An annual staple, Lowe’s refreshed its booth strategy this year, one of the largest footprints at Super Bowl LX Experience, with the Earn Your Sunday Tour, anchored by a double-decker trailer. A white picket fence separated several stations that included a Madden NFL 26 video game cover photo op, Laundry Toss with LG and the chance to get a copy of a house key made at a kiosk. Former NFL running back Frank Gore, who played for the 49ers for most of his career, drew huge crowds of fans who rushed to the booth for a photo.
Watch our Super Bowl LX social coverage:
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Novartis
Official Pharmaceutical Partner of the NFL, Novartis launched its “Relax, it’s a blood test” national prostate cancer awareness initiative at SBX with the “Relax Your Tight End” booth that offered several calming touchpoints.
With the goal of making cancer screening feel less intimidating and more actionable, Novartis encouraged attendees to take a rest in one of six Relax Pods (MetroNaps EnergyPods) and also add their touch to a paint-by-numbers wall of a mountain scenery depicting former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski riding a horse. The company then aired its “Relax, it’s a blood test” commercial during Super Bowl LX, featuring several current and former NFL tight ends.
On the other side of the exhibit hall, as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Novartis popped up a 10-foot-by-10-foot display made up of several NFL helmets, footballs, pom-poms and pennants encased in glass boxes that formed an arch for attendees to pose under for a branded photo op. (Partner: ASV Inc., photo op build)
Rocket Mortgage
Designed to feel like a San Francisco-style neighborhood (tying into its Super Bowl TV spot), Rocket Mortgage’s red-washed activation took attendees through an immersive geo-guessing game, bus stop photo ops and a crowd-sourced white board of responses to the brand’s prompt: What does it mean to be a good neighbor?
When we visited the booth, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins was going through the different touchpoints and then meeting fans for photos on the front steps of a house façade. He, and other NFL stars who stopped in, went through the Neighborhood Combine that included a trash can push, grocery bag bench press and mailbox vertical jump. Attendees swarmed the booth while Cousins was there to watch him take on the challenges. (Agency: 160over90)
Satisfying Catches presented by Snickers
Football games and skills challenges are available at SBX every year, but they’re rarely fully branded by their sponsors. Snickers caught our eye with its chocolate bar theming of the Satisfying Catches obstacle course that led to a final football catch and dive into the Snickers end zone mat. For their efforts, participants were rewarded with Snickers Ice Cream, Snickers Peanut Butter or Skittles from the Snickers Ice Cream Truck.
Toyota Touchdown Drive
Toyota arrived at SBX with a new footprint, Toyota Touchdown Drive, which offered four zones: The Drive, The Dance, The Draw and The Drop. First, The Drive had attendees race custom NFL team-branded mini bZ slot cars that went through and around an actual Toyota bZ car. At The Dance, fans stepped into the bed of a Toyota Tundra to perform a touchdown dance that was recorded and delivered as a digital video to their mobile device. That’s where we saw the most enthusiastic fans of the day.
The Draw featured a tech-forward art moment in a Toyota Tacoma where an AI sketch robot brought fans’ game face to life. And finally, The Drop challenged participants’ Team Toyota knowledge with trivia for a chance to win a collectible jersey keychain—all from inside the new Toyota RAV4. The brand also hosted the second annual Toyota x NFL Flag Glow Up Classic exhibition game that spotlighted two local San Francisco high school female flag football teams at SBX.
Uber Eats
Like Novartis and Rocket, Uber Eats based its activation around its Super Bowl commercial concept, popping up immersive evidence rooms that investigated the conspiracy that football was invented to sell food. We explored an office with photos, clippings, notes and illustrations linked together “murder board”-style, and then headed into a secret room behind a bookcase with “A Buffet of Evidence.” Check out our full breakdown of the space, and head to Instagram for a walkthrough. We certainly left feeling hungry for the truth. (Agency: David Stark Design and Production)
USAA Salute to Service Lounge
USAA continued its annual tradition of hosting the Salute to Service Lounge, open to USAA members, current and former military members, and their families. While it’s usually located on the SBX show floor, this year, the lounge was hosted in a street-level ballroom at the Moscone Center, creating an intimate venue for panel sessions and events that featured NFL players and talent.
Also new for 2026, the lounge opened Wednesday for Military Appreciation Day, in which all military members and their families receive free admission to SBX, courtesy of the Wounded Warrior Project. (Agency: 160over90)
Visa Print Shop
In collaboration with local artists, Visa created a hands-on makerspace experience for fans to personalize NFL-inspired prints. They chose a chant or their own message for the gameday poster, and then artists airbrushed in their name or favorite team. As a finishing touch, participants selected San Francisco-themed stamps to add.
Photo credit: Juanita Chavarro Arias
