Hyundai’s Super Bowl commercial will be filmed after kickoff

When Hyundai Motor America told the NFL about the concept for its Super Bowl ad, it told the league the best moments at this year’s game would happen off the field.

“Believe me, that wasn’t an easy comment to make to the NFL,” says Eric Springer, chief creative officer of the ad agency Innocean USA. “It caused them to go back on their heels until they heard the idea. And then they said: ‘Yeah, it makes total sense.’”

Hyundai is throwing a Super Bowl party for a battalion at a U.S. military installation at an undisclosed location overseas, with big TV screens and all the fixings. Three soldiers selected by the military will experience the game in individual 360-degree immersive pods that will make them feel as if they are in a luxury box at NRG Stadium.

And the 90-second commercial will be filmed beginning after kickoff — and then air in the post-gun slot just after the game ends.

“The moment will happen in the hearts of those who make the Super Bowl possible — our troops,” Springer says.

An ad that normally gestates over 13 to 18 weeks will come to fruition in about an hour and 15 minutes so that it can be filmed and edited — and approved by the military, the NFL and FOX — in time to air after the confetti flies.

“This is not a stunt,” Springer says. “It’s in the soul of the brand.”