Super Bowl Sunday is the single biggest chicken wing occasion in America, with 1.47 billion wings consumed in just 60 minutes of play. Yet in a category driven more by price, weight and perceived quality than brand loyalty, Perdue risked being just another option in the freezer aisle.
Instead of spending $8 million on 30 seconds of one-way airtime, Perdue chose to “wing it.”
The idea: create the first-ever fully unscripted, four-quarter variety show livestreamed during the Super Bowl, starring five-time Emmy winner and master of improv Wayne Brady. Designed as a participatory, multiplatform experience across Wayne’s social channels, “Winging It” responded in real time to the game and audience prompts, turning passive second-screen scrolling into active co-creation. Songs, sketches and surprise guest moments were improvised live, with Perdue’s Air Fryer Ready Crispy Wings seamlessly woven into the entertainment.
The goals were threefold:
To bring “Winging It” to life, we had to embrace the very thing most Super Bowl advertisers avoid: unpredictability.
Instead of spending $8 million on a single 30-second spot, we chose to build something living and breathing alongside the game itself. With nearly 80% of viewers on their phones during the Super Bowl, we saw an opportunity to turn second-screen scrolling into a first-screen brand experience.
The idea was simple but bold: create the first-ever fully unscripted variety show, livestreamed during all four quarters of the game, starring improv legend Wayne Brady. If the Super Bowl is live, why shouldn’t the advertising be?
We structured the show to mirror the rhythm of the game: four quarters of musical improv, comedy, surprise guest appearances and audience-driven moments, all broadcast from Wayne’s social channels. Viewers weren’t just watching; they were shaping the content in real time through comments, prompts and suggestions that Wayne incorporated on the fly.
That real-time responsiveness became the heartbeat of the experience. Our team operated like a live production control room, monitoring conversation, feeding audience ideas into the show, and adapting to in-game twists as they happened. The result felt spontaneous because it was.
The biggest challenge was obvious: risk. A four-hour, unscripted livestream during the most-watched television event of the year leaves no safety net. To manage that, we built a nimble war room of strategists, producers and community managers who could pivot instantly. We trusted Wayne’s improvisational talent to carry the moment, and built the infrastructure to support him.
Another challenge was integration. Perdue needed to show up meaningfully without feeling forced. Rather than interrupting the entertainment, the brand lived inside it. Air Fryer Ready Crispy Wings appeared naturally, as props, punchlines and performance fuel, woven into the fabric of the show instead of layered on top.
What makes “Winging It” unique is that it didn’t compete with the Super Bowl. It participated in it. In a sea of polished, pre-produced ads, Perdue embraced raw, real-time creativity, mirroring the energy, unpredictability and communal spirit of the game itself. It wasn’t just influencer content. It was live entertainment powered by audience collaboration.
And in doing so, Perdue proved that during the biggest broadcast moment of the year, connection beats interruption.
On game day alone, the livestream generated 429.2 million impressions, 7.9 million views, and an exceptional 87% social engagement rate, far exceeding typical Super Bowl social benchmarks.
Instead of a single 30-second burst, Perdue earned four quarters of sustained attention and participation.
