Watch Google, Microsoft Super Bowl Commercials Before the Big Game

Super Bowl Commercials Became an Event Before the Event

The Super Bowl has never been only about football. For millions of viewers, the commercial breaks are practically a second championship, except the competitors are global brands armed with celebrities, expensive cameras, nostalgic songs, and budgets large enough to make an accountant gently lie down.

That was especially true before Super Bowl LIV, played between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs on February 2, 2020. The average price of a 30-second national advertising slot reportedly reached approximately $5.6 million, before production costs, promotional campaigns, or the emergency shipment of artisanal snacks to the creative team were added.

Rather than keeping their commercials secret until game day, Google and Microsoft released their full spots online in advance. The strategy allowed viewers to watch, share, discuss, and emotionally recover from the ads before kickoff. It also extended each campaign beyond one expensive television appearance and turned the internet into a giant pregame screening room.

The two technology giants took noticeably different creative routes. Google told a deeply personal story about love, grief, and remembering. Microsoft focused on ambition, representation, and professional progress. Neither commercial spent much time rattling off processor speeds or software features. Apparently, “Now with improved cloud synchronization” does not make people cry into the guacamole.

Google’s “Loretta” Turns a Digital Assistant Into a Memory Keeper

A Quiet Love Story in a Loud Advertising Arena

Google’s 90-second commercial, titled “Loretta,” follows an older man remembering his late wife. Through a series of spoken requests, searches, photographs, and saved details, he asks Google Assistant to help him preserve the small things that made Loretta unforgettable.

He remembers that she loved tulips, hummed show tunes, had beautiful handwriting, enjoyed scallops, disliked his mustache, and snorted when she laughed. These are not grand historical facts. They are intimate fragmentsthe tiny pieces of a relationship that become enormously important when the person connected to them is gone.

The story was inspired by the real grandparents of a Google employee, and the narrator was the employee’s 85-year-old grandfather. That personal foundation gave the commercial an authenticity that would have been difficult to manufacture with polished actors and a studio full of artificial rain.

The Product Appears Without Hijacking the Story

“Loretta” is unmistakably a Google commercial, but it does not behave like a conventional technology demonstration. Google Search, Assistant, photographs, reminders, and voice interaction appear naturally because the man has a meaningful reason to use them.

The product’s function is simple: help him hold onto details. Google does not claim that an algorithm can replace human memory or eliminate grief. Instead, it presents technology as a supporting toolsomething capable of storing a sentence, locating a photograph, or replaying a favorite movie when memory needs a gentle nudge.

This restrained approach is precisely what makes the product memorable. The commercial never shouts, “Look at our brilliant artificial intelligence!” It lets viewers discover the usefulness themselves. By the time the Google logo appears, the audience already understands the benefit.

Why “Loretta” Connected With Viewers

Many Super Bowl commercials chase attention through spectacle. They send celebrities into space, resurrect movie characters, introduce dancing animals, or combine several unrelated ideas and hope nobody asks why.

Google moved in the opposite direction. The screen remained simple. The narration was calm. The emotional weight came from recognizable human details rather than dramatic speeches. That contrast made “Loretta” stand out in a broadcast filled with energetic jokes and celebrity appearances.

Audience research later identified the ad as one of Super Bowl LIV’s most emotionally effective campaigns. Testing reported unusually strong feelings of warmth and sadness, along with favorable brand responses. The commercial also appeared on YouTube’s list of the most-watched ads of 2020.

In marketing terms, Google connected a product capability with a universal concern: the fear of forgetting someone we love. In ordinary human terms, it placed an innocent-looking commercial directly beside the onion dip and made the entire room suspiciously quiet.

Microsoft’s “Be the One” Celebrates Katie Sowers

From Childhood Dream to Super Bowl History

Microsoft’s “Be the One” commercial centers on Katie Sowers, then an offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers. When the team reached Super Bowl LIV, Sowers became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ coach to coach in a Super Bowl.

Narrated by Sowers, the ad traces her relationship with football from childhood dreams to professional coaching. Home-video-style footage, family photographs, practice scenes, and sideline moments show that her achievement was not an overnight publicity event. It grew from years of playing, learning, working, and refusing to accept that football belonged to only one kind of person.

The title “Be the One” carries a double meaning. Sowers became the one who crossed a particular barrier, but the commercial also challenges young viewers to imagine becoming the next first. Someone has to enter the room before the room begins to look normal for everyone else.

Microsoft Surface Stays in the Background

Microsoft Surface devices appear in the commercial, consistent with the company’s technology partnership with the NFL. However, the hardware is not treated like the star. It appears as part of the real working environment of coaches who study plays, communicate information, and prepare for games.

This was a smart decision. A louder product pitch could have weakened the sincerity of Sowers’ story. By keeping Surface in a supporting role, Microsoft associated the brand with preparation, collaboration, and opportunity without interrupting the narrative to explain battery life.

The commercial therefore operates on two levels. It celebrates an individual milestone while quietly presenting Microsoft technology as a practical tool used by people performing at the highest level of professional sports.

Representation Without Turning Sowers Into a Slogan

“Be the One” succeeds because Sowers is presented as a coach with expertise, ambition, humor, and a lifelong connection to the game. Her identity matters because the barrier was real, but the commercial does not reduce her to that barrier.

That balance is important. Representation in advertising can feel superficial when a person appears merely to decorate a brand’s values. Microsoft gave Sowers control of the narration and grounded the campaign in her actual career. The result felt more like a short sports documentary than a corporate lecture.

The spot earned strong emotional-response evaluations after the game, with advertising analysts praising its inspirational structure, archival footage, and focus on Sowers’ own voice.

Google and Microsoft Used Opposite Emotions to Reach the Same Goal

At first glance, “Loretta” and “Be the One” seem completely different. One looks backward at a completed life together. The other looks forward to a more inclusive future. One is quiet and reflective; the other is energetic and determined.

Yet both commercials follow the same strategic principle: begin with a human truth and let the technology serve it.

Google Focused on Memory

Google connected its products to remembrance. Search, voice commands, images, and saved information became tools for preserving a relationship. The brand’s message was not simply that Google knows things. It was that Google can help people remember the things they never want to lose.

Microsoft Focused on Possibility

Microsoft linked its technology to achievement. Surface appeared in an environment where information, teamwork, and preparation mattered. The broader message was that technology should help talented people do their work and reach places from which they were previously excluded.

Both Brands Avoided the Feature Checklist

Neither advertisement overwhelmed viewers with technical terminology. There were no charts, comparison tables, or breathless announcements about integrated ecosystems. Instead, Google demonstrated one emotionally relevant use case, while Microsoft showed its product inside an authentic professional story.

This is a valuable lesson for technology marketing. Most consumers do not build emotional connections with specifications alone. They connect with what a product enables: remembering a loved one, completing meaningful work, achieving a childhood goal, or making life slightly less complicated before the Wi-Fi stops cooperating.

Why Release Super Bowl Commercials Before the Game?

Publishing a Super Bowl advertisement early may appear to spoil the surprise, but modern campaigns are designed for more than a single television broadcast.

Online Previews Extend an Expensive Investment

A commercial released several days before the Super Bowl can generate news coverage, social-media discussion, video views, reaction posts, and workplace debates before the brand pays for its premium game-day slot. Early distribution gives the campaign time to develop momentum instead of asking one television appearance to perform all the work.

Viewers Can Watch Without Waiting for a Commercial Break

Not everyone watches the Super Bowl from kickoff to the final whistle. Some people are interested in the commercials but less enthusiastic about watching large athletes repeatedly collide for several hours. An online release lets those viewers join the cultural conversation on their own schedule.

Emotion Benefits From Repeated Viewing

Commercials such as “Loretta” and “Be the One” contain details that become more noticeable on a second viewing. In Google’s ad, individual memories reveal the shape of a marriage. In Microsoft’s spot, childhood footage and professional scenes create a clearer sense of Sowers’ long journey.

Rewatching also gives people a chance to share the commercial with a parent, colleague, coach, spouse, or friend. That personal distribution can be far more valuable than passive exposure during one crowded broadcast.

What These Super Bowl Ads Teach Content Creators

Start With a Specific Person

Broad messages become powerful when attached to a recognizable individual. “Preserve memories” is a marketing concept. A widower remembering that his wife snorted when she laughed is a story. “Support inclusion” is a corporate value. Katie Sowers preparing to coach in the Super Bowl is evidence.

Show the Product Solving One Meaningful Problem

Google did not attempt to demonstrate every Assistant feature. Microsoft did not provide a complete tour of Surface. Each company selected a narrow role for its technology and made that role easy to understand.

Trust the Audience

The commercials do not repeatedly explain what viewers should feel. Google leaves space for silence and recognition. Microsoft allows Sowers’ history to establish the significance of the moment. Effective storytelling respects the audience’s ability to connect the dots without being chased by an inspirational slogan every six seconds.

Use Emotion That Fits the Brand

Emotional advertising works best when the emotion is connected to a credible product benefit or company position. Google’s ability to organize information supports the memory theme. Microsoft’s presence in professional workplaces supports the performance theme. Without those connections, even a touching story can feel like a short film wearing a company logo as an awkward hat.

A Viewer’s Experience: Watching the Ads Before the Big Game

Watching these Google and Microsoft Super Bowl commercials before game day creates a different experience from encountering them unexpectedly during the broadcast. At home, without a noisy room or someone announcing that the nachos are ready, the small creative decisions become easier to notice.

“Loretta” benefits most from that quiet setting. The commercial initially appears almost too simple: a voice, a search screen, photographs, and short instructions to Google Assistant. Then the details begin accumulating. Tulips. Alaska. A mustache Loretta did not like. Her laugh. Her handwriting. Each detail is ordinary, but together they reveal a complete relationship without showing a conventional dramatic scene.

The experience can feel surprisingly personal because it encourages viewers to think about the details they associate with people in their own lives. What phrase did a grandparent always use? Which song did a parent play in the car? What meal did a partner order every time despite studying the menu for 20 minutes? The commercial quietly suggests that love often survives in these tiny, almost ridiculous facts.

It also raises a practical question: how should people use digital tools to preserve memories? Photographs are useful, but photographs without names, dates, voices, or stories can become mysterious files inherited by relatives. “Loretta” makes a persuasive case for adding contextrecording the sentence behind the image, not just storing another image in a folder labeled “Vacation Final Final 2.”

Microsoft’s “Be the One” produces a different kind of response. Its energy builds as Sowers describes her love of football and the path that brought her to the 49ers’ sideline. Watching it before the game adds context to her presence during the broadcast. She is no longer simply a coach briefly visible behind a player. Viewers understand the years of work and the historical significance behind that moment.

The ad is particularly effective when watched with younger athletes. Children are remarkably skilled at noticing who gets to participate in the worlds presented to them. Seeing a woman coaching at the highest level of professional football expands the range of roles they can imagine, even when they do not pause the commercial to deliver a formal analysis of workplace equality.

Watching both ads together also reveals how flexible technology advertising can be. Google creates emotional intimacy with an almost empty visual style. Microsoft uses motion, sports footage, and an uplifting personal narrative. One commercial makes the room silent; the other makes viewers sit a little straighter.

Neither experience depends on owning a particular device. That is part of their effectiveness. The immediate reaction is directed toward the story, while the brand benefit arrives more subtly. Google becomes associated with helpful remembering. Microsoft becomes associated with people breaking barriers and doing serious work.

By the time the commercials appear during the Super Bowl, viewers who watched early may experience them less like interruptions and more like familiar short films. They may point them out to others, notice a favorite detail, or study how the rest of the room reacts. In a broadcast where many ads compete to become the loudest joke of the night, familiarity can be an advantage.

The most lasting experience, however, comes after the screen changes. “Loretta” may inspire someone to label old photographs, record a relative’s story, or save a cherished voice message. “Be the One” may encourage a student, athlete, or aspiring coach to treat an unusual ambition as a serious plan rather than a daydream.

That is an impressive outcome for advertising. Most commercials want viewers to remember a product until their next shopping trip. These two Super Bowl spots ask viewers to remember a person, recognize a pioneer, and consider what technology is actually for. The answer, thankfully, is more interesting than receiving another notification.

Conclusion: Technology Works Best When the Story Comes First

Google and Microsoft entered the Super Bowl advertising arena with enormous brands, sophisticated products, and access to nearly every modern marketing tool. Their strongest decision was to keep those tools under control.

Google’s “Loretta” made technology feel compassionate by showing how digital information can support human memory. Microsoft’s “Be the One” made technology feel empowering by connecting it with Katie Sowers’ historic journey to the Super Bowl. The products remained visible, but the people remained central.

That is why both commercials continued to attract attention after the game ended. They were not merely advertisements for an assistant or a tablet. They were stories about love, ambition, identity, work, and the details that shape a life.

The best Super Bowl commercials do more than fill the space between plays. They create the moment people discuss after the scoreboard disappears. Google and Microsoft achieved that without exploding a car, hiring a talking animal, or forcing a celebrity to dance beside a bowl of chips. In Super Bowl advertising, that may qualify as its own historic breakthrough.