Inside Apple’s Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show strategy

When Roc Nation and the NFL decided that Bad Bunny would be their Super Bowl headliner, the next step was for Apple, the show’s sponsor, to set the strategy to hype the halftime show.

Apple has spearheaded the Super Bowl halftime show since 2023, building a complex array of advertising, teasers, playlists, and other content across its many platforms for Rihanna (2023), Usher (2024), and Kendrick Lamar (2025). Since the start of this $50-million-per-year sponsorship deal, Apple has treated the halftime show like it might be one of its products, with all the marketing and advertising bells and whistles it has at its disposal for things like the iPhone and Apple Watch.

And it seems to be working.

Since 2022, Apple Music has grown its subscriber base from 88 million globally to about 108 million. It currently has about a 30% market share of music streaming subscribers in the U.S., compared with Spotify’s 36%. Globally, though, Apple’s market share drops to about 16%—and this is where the Bad Bunny strategy comes in.

The Puerto Rican superstar is one of the most-streamed artists on the planet. As soon as he was announced, Apple Music released custom playlists, interviews, and more to excite fans and educate curious potential new fans. By crafting and promoting the Super Bowl halftime show as a global product launch starring such an internationally popular artist, Apple is using its broader playbook to expand the footprint of its big game investment.

Artist first

After landing the halftime performer, the first thing Apple’s vice president of marketing, Tor Myhren, and his team do is sit down with the artist and ask a few questions: What is it that you want to get out of this? What do you want this to be? What’s the goal here? 

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, is a global superstar and one of the most-streamed artist on the planet. His answer? “This isn’t my halftime show. This is for everyone.”

“We thought that was such an inclusive, optimistic approach,” Myhren says. “So we just wrote that on the wall and said, ‘That’s the brief, so let’s just make sure it feels like this is for everyone.’ This is a celebration.”

The celebration theme is in sharp contrast to the reaction from right-wing media and social commentators, and even President Trump himself, since Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime act in late September. Last week, Trump was asked about him and fellow Super Bowl performers Green Day. “I’m anti-them,” Trump said. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

The reality of Bad Bunny’s message is the exact opposite of hatred. In the halftime show’s trailer, the artist is seen dancing happily with people of all shades, shapes, and sizes. 

Myhren says that this, in essence, is Bad Bunny’s vibe. “He wants it to be positive. He wants it to be filled with optimism.” 

And why shouldn’t he? He is the fourth artist to do the show since Apple took over its sponsorship, and each year it has broken viewership records. Rihanna’s 2023 show had 121 million, Usher’s had 123.4 million, and Lamar’s performance last year hit 133.5 million viewers. 

Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music, Sports, and Beats, says that the company’s relationship with artists makes it ideal for the halftime show. They’ve been working with Bad Bunny since about 2016. “Unlike previous sponsors, we have such a close relationship with the artists that in all four years, we were able to work really closely on how we want this to be announced, how we want it to be rolled out, and what the surprises are,” Schusser says. “And I think that puts us in a very unique position, unlike any other version of this event.”

The goal this year is to globally expand the show. Myhren says Apple is using some of the same tactics it employs to launch new products around the world to promote this show. 

“When you think about the way we launch our physical products—whether it’s an outdoor billboard, a film ad, a small piece in your social feed—they have to be able to play everywhere,” he says. “They have to speak to everyone, which is why we don’t use a lot of dialogue. Music is a universal language, so we use that. That’s been really, really fun and challenging.”

Measuring success

Apple’s halftime show sponsorship is a five-year deal with the NFL that was signed in September 2022. And just like any Super Bowl advertiser that wants you to remember its big game commercial, Apple wants to make sure we all know who’s sponsoring the halftime show. Myhren says that the brand measures success in the most obvious ways—total viewership, social impressions, and earned media. Are we watching and are we talking about it? Three years and three record-breaking audiences later, and the answer is pretty clear. 

The brand produces a slick pregame press conference for each halftime artist to further entice music fans. Far beyond your typical press room table and mic, it’s more like a slick talk-show pop-up. The Apple Music platform is packed with a variety of playlists tailored to everyone from Bad Bunny stans to total n00bs. And all the video content, including the show itself, is available on Apple TV.

“We’ve figured out ways to just make sure we’re a part of that conversation, which is critical,” Myhren says. “By building up what’s happening on the platform, we want people—whether they’re Apple Music subscribers now or potential subscribers—coming to the platform and experiencing what we have there, especially around these few weeks.”

Myhren knows the question on any marketer’s mind is: What are you getting out of this?

“It really sits at the center of the biggest viewership event in the U.S. every year by a long shot. There’s nothing else even close,” he says. “I think it’s really unique and absolutely worth every penny.”