The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Apple's Messi ad 'intercepts' the Super Bowl: when football ends, fútbol begins
Right after the NFL's biggest game, Apple TV airs a Messi spot telling America the MLS season starts in two weeks — 'when football ends, fútbol begins.'
Apple (Apple TV) · Major League Soccer
What it had to solve
Apple TV held exclusive rights to the 2025 MLS season via MLS Season Pass and needed Americans to care that it started February 22 — just after Super Bowl LIX, when the whole country had football on its mind and Messi had ridden a viral wave through the 2024 season as MLS MVP.
How it works
Apple TV's 2025 MLS Season Pass campaign used the Super Bowl as its launchpad — literally. On the night of February 9, 2025, seconds after the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40–22, a spot starring Lionel Messi aired: 'When football ends, fútbol begins,' with the new MLS season set for February 22 on Apple TV.
The genius was placement, not production. Messi and his Inter Miami teammates were in New Orleans watching the game, so the ad felt like part of the event — the camera cut from the NFL's finale to the sport that starts where it leaves off. Apple didn't try to make America choose between football and fútbol; it made football the trailer for fútbol.
The timing turned a rival's climax into the campaign. Super Bowl Sunday is the country's largest single television audience, and the minutes after the broadcast are when viewers linger. By owning that gap, Apple launched an entire season off one placement, then amplified it through the players' own social posts from the stadium.
The payoff landed a year later: 'Messi Intercepts the Super Bowl' won the Webby Award for Social Video, Individual at the 30th Webby Awards in April 2026, joining a list of advertising campaigns that used a single, perfectly timed moment to carry a whole product period.
Why it lands
- The post-game gap is one of TV's biggest leftover audiences — the ad ran when millions were still watching, with no competing spots around the clock.
- Framing the NFL as the prequel made the rival a free amplifier: no comparison battle, just a handoff.
- Messi as messenger needed no explanation — a two-week-old season opener became a direct message from the sport's biggest name.
- Jury recognition showed the idea outlasted the moment: a timing play remembered as creativity, not media buying.
What it did
The ad won the Webby Award for Social Video, Individual at the 30th Annual Webby Awards (2026) and kicked off a season Messi entered as defending MVP, chasing a third trophy with Miami; the MLS opener against New York City FC aired on Apple TV two weeks after the Super Bowl.
What you can take
When your season starts right after the biggest event in your field, don't fight the calendar — make the ending your launch: show up in the moment the audience is already looking for what's next.
Since then
MLS 2025 kicked off on schedule, February 22, with Inter Miami hosting New York City FC on MLS Season Pass; Messi entered the season as the defending Landon Donovan MLS MVP and chased a third trophy with the club after Leagues Cup 2023 and the 2024 Supporters' Shield. The campaign was recognized at the 30th Annual Webby Awards in April 2026, winning the Advertising, Media & PR social-video category. Apple has kept expanding MLS Season Pass coverage each season, making the Super Bowl adjacency a repeatable marketing moment for the league.
Sources
- MLS is Back: Inter Miami's Lionel Messi stars in Super Bowl ad
- 30TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS ANNOUNCE 2026 WINNERS
- The advertising, media, and PR award winners from the 30th annual Webby Awards
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