Rocket Cos. Super Bowl 2025 Ad: What Is This Company Actually Selling?

Every year, the Super Bowl brings a new glut of unique, funny, or even confusing commercials for consumers to enjoy, analyze, or even complain about online. While some watch (and bet big on) the actual football, 42% of consumers actually tune into the game just to watch the commercials (according to a 2022 survey from Advocado). This has not only created a highly competitive market but has also led to exorbitant prices. For the upcoming Super Bowl LIX, 30 second ad spots are going for over $8 million each. These costs not only push out smaller companies in favor of more established ones with bigger marketing budgets, but it also means each company, brand, or product can't afford to waste any of its precious 30 seconds.

Between prices, and this year's game broadcaster (Fox), leveraging Super Bowl ad spots in exchange for larger advertising packages the chances are good you won't be seeing any unknown or under-the-radar brands advertising during this year's game. This means that, while you will probably already be familiar with the companies, brands, and products being advertised, the commercials you see will be more focused on potentially changing the way you might already think about that company, brand, or product. With that in mind, consumers might be surprised to see an ad from a company known as Rocket during this year's Super Bowl. While it might seem like a new company, the ad is actually for the company formerly known as Rocket Mortgage.

If you're wondering why Rocket Mortgage has a new name, it's part of a larger rebranding strategy on the part of the company. As Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer of Rocket, explained to USA Today's Ad Meter, "The Rocket brand restage is designed to broaden the brand's appeal, attracting category growth audiences while maintaining strong connections with our established base."

When it comes to Super Bowl ads, specifically, Rocket has a strong legacy to uphold. According to Ad Meter's annual Super Bowl ad rankings, Rocket ranked in the top five in 2020 and then won back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. Keep in mind that the kinds of companies that have similarly won back-to-back Super Bowl Ad Meter rankings are colossal brands like Pepsi and Budweiser. Since its 2022 victory, Rocket has been on a Super Bowl ad hiatus, making this year's ad especially awaited by both competitors and advertising fans alike.

If you're wondering what, exactly, Rocket is selling through its Super Bowl ad, the answer is nebulously homeownership. As Mildenhall put it, "With the introduction of Rocket's new visual identity system, we are steadfast in our focus to create the most desirable brand in homeownership." However, with interest rates still extremely high (the national average mortgage rate has been over 7% since the start of the new year, according to Bankrate, and even a 1% change in your mortgage can be financially significant), Rocket has a steep hill to climb when it comes to convincing Americans they can afford to buy a new home this year.

You might be wondering how and why some Super Bowl ads are already being discussed and judged online. In more recent years, advertisers have begun to tease or even fully release their Super Bowl ads well in advance of the big game. There are several reasons for these early releases but one of the major reasons is to try and stand out from the crowd. Given the same-day glut of advertising on the day of the Super Bowl (in 2024, 59 unique commercials aired during the game), some brands prefer to create buzz around their ad ahead of time to ensure more impressions and general campaign success. This tactic also has the side effect of helping to justify the high price tag associated with releasing a Super Bowl ad. Generally speaking brands also utilize ad buys across social media and websites both before and after the game as well, in order to ensure maximum reach for their ad. This can have the added bonus of a consumer being more likely to actually remember the ad when they do see it during the game.

While Rocket did not release its full ad ahead of the game, it did release a 15 second commercial preview with the obvious intention of attempting to create buzz. The company also announced a change in this year's ad, moving away from the successful tactics that have fueled the company's Ad Meter wins in the past. Specifically, Mildenhall revealed their ad would have, "No celebrities. No gimmicks. Just real people getting home."