Paramount is setting itself up for a big win in the AFC Championship game.
Today, the company announced that, for the first time, it’s bringing live, shoppable ads to Sunday’s NFL playoff matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. To do so, the company is promoting its CBS Sports HQ digital storefront, a second-screen shoppable experience.
Here’s how it works: Using a phone or tablet, viewers can shop the CBS Sports HQ Store and peruse featured products that cater to an NFL-viewing audience. Among the goods, fans can shop for snacks and entertainment, with sports marketing partners like Pepsi coming on to make it happen.
The storefront is run through Shopsense technology. Paramount previously kicked off its Shopsense partnership at the 2024 CMT Music Awards red carpet pre-show and had a Shopsense AI Lens at the MTV VMAs.
According to Paramount Advertising, unlike previous QR code experiences, the CBS Sports HQ Store activation is all bout immediate fulfillment as it looks to drive results for participating brands and companies.
The goal of the live sports activation is to make a frictionless experience, according to the company. Additionally, shoppable activations for the CBS Sports HQ Store will run during commercial inventory, much like Paramount has done in its other marquee programming, such as its NFL Thanksgiving game.
The company has a history of success with introducing interactive ads during major sports matchups, previously partnering with Innovid for interactive ads in Super Bowl 58. During the game, Paramount+ ran its first-ever “Add to Watchlist” interactive ads to promote content including Ghosts, Halo, The Chi, Tracker, Fire Country, Family Stallone, Lioness, The Tiger’s Apprentice, and Mission Impossible 7.
At the time, Paramount+’s interactive ads outpaced expectations, coming in at 6% higher than Innovid’s benchmarks.
You can see the NFL AFC Championship on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS and its streaming platforms.
