New research from Typeface shows why preparation, not speed alone, shapes how brands perform in real time.
As brands gear up for the Super Bowl, the pressure to respond in real time feels unavoidable. Nearly 70% of viewers will be scrolling on a second screen while the game unfolds, raising the stakes for marketers hoping to land something timely without getting it wrong. According to new research from Typeface, the issue isn’t a lack of ideas or access to AI. It’s whether organizations are actually ready to move when the moment arrives.
In a conversation with The Drum, Jason Ing, chief marketing officer at Typeface, which counts Microsoft among its investors and partners, said the study, based on a survey of more than 200 marketers, highlights a widening gap between how fast content can be created and how slowly it still moves through many organizations.
On the surface, marketers are moving faster than ever. About 87% of respondents said AI helps them create content more quickly. That speed, however, comes with tradeoffs. Nearly two-thirds of marketers said they feel burned out by the pace and volume of content demands, pressure that only intensifies around moments like the Super Bowl.
At large organizations, that strain often shows up in approvals. Roughly 70% of companies with more than 1,000 employees said it takes more than a day to approve real-time content. By the time something clears review, the moment has often passed. “You might be able to generate a piece of creative in 10 minutes,” Ing said, “but it can still take three days to get approved.”
That hesitation, he added, isn’t about a lack of creativity. It’s about risk. Teams worry about misreading the room, drifting off brand or making the wrong call in a very public moment. Speed alone doesn’t solve that.
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For many teams, those approval delays point to a deeper issue than speed alone. Ing described it as a mindset problem. “A lot of people still think about AI as a tool,” he said. “What really changes outcomes is when you treat it as a system, something that shapes how people, process and technology work together.” That becomes a problem when campaigns need to move quickly and touch multiple channels at once.
When brand guidelines, tone and assets are clearly defined and easy to access, AI-generated outputs tend to be more consistent. That can cut down on back-and-forth during reviews. “The slowdown usually isn’t in making the content,” Ing said. “It’s in what happens after.”
Burnout adds another layer. Marketers experiencing high burnout were 230% more likely to say their brands miss cultural moments. That fatigue doesn’t just slow teams down. It also makes them more cautious, even as expectations keep rising.
AI can remove some manual work, but it also raises expectations. “Marketers feel pressure to produce more, faster, while still staying relevant and on brand,” Ing said. That anxiety, he added, compounds inside large organizations juggling personalization, compliance and public visibility at the same time.
Despite AI’s expanding role, Ing was clear that technology doesn’t replace human judgment. If anything, it raises the bar for it. “AI kind of raises the floor in marketing,” he said. “Once everyone has access to the same tools, that becomes table stakes.”
What still separates strong work from forgettable work, he argued, is human taste and storytelling. Ing pointed to long-standing advertising principles, including David Ogilvy’s emphasis on human truth. “Storytelling is always going to be critical to what great marketing looks like,” he said. “We have shared experiences. We have pain. That human condition is something AI will never replace.”
That distinction matters most during cultural moments like the Super Bowl. AI can help deliver messages efficiently, but it can’t fully read the room. “Behind every great campaign, it really starts and ends with human insight,” Ing said. “Someone still has to understand the moment and what will resonate emotionally.”
For brands watching the Super Bowl and thinking they should react, Ing’s advice was less about improvisation and more about preparation. Teams need to know their game plan before kickoff. “They should have their workflows, their prep and their process mapped out end to end,” he said, so response doesn’t turn into a scramble over who needs to approve what.
Having a war room helps, but only if the underlying decision structures are already in place. Otherwise, speed just exposes friction. As Ing put it, when teams are set up correctly, approvals stop being a debate and become a checkpoint, allowing marketers to focus on judgment, not logistics. In that sense, the Super Bowl doesn’t reward faster typing. It rewards confidence built well before game day.
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