But new data from HubSpot turns that logic on its head.
After analyzing marketing activities and buyer behavior during the past three Super Bowls (2024-2026), HubSpot found that while many B2B brands are pulling back, the audience is actually more involved – and not just during the game. Email opens, click-through rates and web traffic are all up, suggesting that Super Bowl week is less of a dead zone and more of an overlooked opportunity.
When brands go quiet, buyers start clicking
HubSpot’s data shows what it calls “The Send Gap”: During Super Bowl week, B2B email send volume drops 2.3%. But while marketers pause, buyers lean forward.
Opening rates increase by a full percentage point and click-through rates increase by 0.56 percentage points. Website traffic follows suit, with B2B page visits increasing 7.5% year over year.
In other words: less noise, more attention.
“There is a clear disconnect between B2B marketing behavior and buyer attention,” said Sunil Desai, SVP Marketing at HubSpot. “Super Bowl week is actually one of the most efficient times of the year for first-party channel engagement.”
The momentum after the match is real
It’s not just a one-hit wonder. HubSpot found that the engagement boost will last through the end of February.
Click-through rates remain 0.45 percentage points above average the week after the contest, and the HubSpot team is characterized by new intent rather than delayed responses to the previous week’s campaigns. While there is some residual growth into March, this appears to be consistent with regular season purchasing cycles rather than Super Bowl spillover.
So a well-timed campaign in early February could have a longer runway than you might expect.
Not all sectors benefit equally, but most are seeing an increase
The increase in engagement is not limited to one B2B industry. HubSpot reports that while the size of the spike varies, almost every industry sees some increase in site traffic and engagement during Super Bowl week.
Sectors with built-in seasonality in February, such as Health & Wellness or Accounting, tend to experience the biggest bumps. Others, such as Education, see a smaller relative increase. But the overall trend is consistent: Buyers are active, even if marketers assume they aren’t.
That dynamic presents clear opportunities for demand generation, especially for teams looking to do more with less in a tight budget environment.
Paid advertisements perform less well, while private channels perform well
One surprising wrinkle: While email and web traffic performed better, paid advertising performance actually weakened during Super Bowl week.
That is not entirely unexpected. Between the higher CPMs around the big games and the high ad saturation of brands, the cost efficiency of paid media tends to decline. But the contrast highlights a key advantage for brands that double down on their own channels – email, content and web – when attention is high and competition is low.
“If you only focus on paid reach, you’re missing where the real engagement happens,” says Desai. “This is exactly the kind of time when efficient marketing through proprietary channels can trump high-cost strategies.”
Reconsider the Super Bowl blackout
B2B marketers often rely on the consumer scenario, assuming that the Super Bowl is too busy, too noisy or too irrelevant for business buyers.
But that logic doesn’t apply. HubSpot’s data shows that buyers are not only paying attention, they’re doing it more likely to open, click and explore when others have gone silent. With engagement remaining stable in the coming weeks, the Super Bowl is not only a major event for B2C, but also a top moment for B2B.
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