Beyond the Game: What the Super Bowl Shows About Hispanic Culture

By Maria Lucia Parra – I am a bilingual Hispanic marketing/UX researcher with extensive experience in identifying the right approaches to meet clients’ objectives, as “one size does not fit all”.

To understand how Hispanics experienced this year’s Super Bowl, Ingenium Research conducted a comprehensive qualitative study using the 1Q platform, engaging U.S. Hispanic participants in real time. The study focused on individuals with moderate to high cultural affinity; people for whom culture is not merely background identity but an active lens that shapes their sense of belonging, community, and interpretation of mainstream media.

Participants represented a diverse range of adults aged 18 to 64, including individuals of different genders, income levels, education levels, household types, and life stages. Because this group maintains a strong, lived cultural connection, their responses offer more than just viewing preferences. They reveal how meaning is created within one of the largest shared cultural moments in the United States.

What emerged was not primarily a story about football. It was a story about gathering, representation, and memory.

Why the Super Bowl Is Watched

For this culturally connected Hispanic audience, the Super Bowl acts less as a sports contest and more as a shared social event. Only 5% of participants said the game itself was the most enjoyable part of the evening. Instead, most focused on the halftime show (37%) and watching with family and friends (32%).

Together, these responses represent nearly 70% of viewers, showing that the emotional value of the Super Bowl is rooted not just in the game, but in the moments created around it. Participants consistently described the event as a chance to gather, celebrate, and engage in a shared cultural experience where entertainment and community are more meaningful than the competition.

As one participant said: “Football may be on the screen, but family is what matters.”

In this context, football provides the structure, but togetherness provides the purpose.

A Moment of Unusually Strong Cultural Inclusion

Within that shared gathering, this year’s broadcast delivered something that mainstream media rarely achieve at scale: a broad sense of authentic cultural representation. A combined 89% of participants felt Hispanic culture was represented at least somewhat, including 72% who described it as very well represented.

More revealing than the numbers was the emotional language participants used to describe their experience. Respondents discussed pride, recognition, unity, and belonging, and several noted that the visibility of Latino culture, particularly through the halftime show, was sufficient to motivate them to watch the Super Bowl for the first time.

One participant shared: “Me super encantó… derramé lágrimas al ver todas las banderas… Todos somos América.”/ “I loved it… I cried seeing all the flags… We are all America.”

In this way, representation did more than acknowledge an existing audience. It expanded participation by making the moment feel culturally relevant.

Where Emotional Meaning Concentrated

At the core of that significance was Bad Bunny’s halftime show, which proved to be the most memorable and emotionally powerful part of the night. Participants consistently connected the performance to cultural pride, unity among Latin American communities, and bonds with family and shared history. Even those who weren’t fans of his music widely acknowledged the symbolic importance of the moment.

As one respondent described: “I felt proud… I felt represented… it felt like a huge family party.”

The halftime show did more than just entertain. It provided the emotional lens through which the entire Super Bowl was viewed. Memory is shaped by cultural significance, not merely by the size of the production.

Advertising Recall in a High-Inclusion Moment

Despite strong cultural inclusion, advertising struggled to leave a lasting impression. Only a few brands were mentioned, including e.l.f., Telemundo, Rocket Mortgage in partnership with Redfin, Lay’s, Pepsi, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Budweiser. Even among those, participants focused less on the brands themselves and more on culturally meaningful storytelling elements.

The humor of a telenovela-style execution featuring Melissa McCarthy stood out because it reflected familiar Latino media traditions: “Melissa McCarthy in the Spanish novela commercial… the best.”

Moments when the Spanish language was spoken naturally, including appearances related to Sofía Vergara, fostered a sense of visibility and belonging that went beyond the advertiser’s importance: “Owen actually spoke Spanish… that mattered.”

Narratives centered on empathy, care, and neighbors helping one another across differences resonated because they reflected shared community values rather than persuasive messaging: “El comercial de vecinos que podemos ayudarnos… no importa el color.”/ “The commercial about neighbors helping each other… no matter the color.”

In each instance, cultural truth created memory, while branding stayed secondary.

What This Signals for Brands

Taken together, these findings indicate a shift in how major cultural events function for Hispanic audiences. The Super Bowl is transforming into a cultural gathering characterized more by shared experiences than by sports. Entertainment that genuinely reflects identity can convey emotional significance more effectively than traditional advertising, and culturally specific cues, language, storytelling style, and community values are more likely to generate lasting recall than scale or celebrity alone.

For brands, this redefines opportunity. Relevance may depend less on being present during the game and more on engaging with the social context surrounding it, especially the pre-game gatherings shaped by food, music, and community, where meaning is created.

Looking Ahead to the World Cup

These insights come at a crucial cultural moment. With the World Cup happening in the U.S., Hispanic cultural influence will shift from important to central on one of the world’s biggest stages. If the Super Bowl demonstrated how genuine representation can foster inclusion and emotional bonds, the World Cup will raise expectations for brands seeking authentic engagement in multicultural moments.

Visibility alone won’t suffice anymore. Belonging will be the new standard.

Final Reflection

The qualitative-at-scale perspective offered by Ingenium Research through the 1Q platform highlights a broader transformation already taking place. Cultural meaning is playing an increasingly important role in shaping how large public events are experienced in the United States. Successful brands will not just appear in the moment; they will understand the people involved before it even begins.