And it turns out, the pandemic is impacting the Big Game broadcast, too, with multiple brands that performed well financially over the past year opting to advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time. Those brands include online car marketplace Vroom, lawn product purveyor Scotts Miracle-Gro and freelancer marketplace Fiverr.

Vroom is the first brand to reveal its 2021 Big Game spot, “Dealership Pain,” a humorous take on the pains of buying a car at a dealership that shows a man being tortured by a car salesman before the screen switches to a scene on his lawn, where he’s watching the car he ordered on Vroom appear. The 30-second spot will air during a to-be-determined time during the game, depending on how the game progresses. It is created by agency of record Anomaly.

“Vroom had a monumental 2020,” said Peter Scherr, CMO, Vroom. Scherr noted the company is increasing its marketing investment in 2021 to continue raising national awareness of the brand and build a world where “consumers never have to set foot in a dealership again.”

Scotts Miracle-Gro will run a 30-second spot—the cost of which is $5.5 million—during the game’s second quarter, while Fiverr will run its own 30-second spot during the third quarter. Fiverr’s spot is part of its larger, preexisting “It Starts Here” campaign, which debuted in September. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s campaign, which will have creative handled by VaynerMedia (the agency behind three Super Bowl spots in 2020, including the infamous death of Mr. Peanut) will establish a “rallying cry” for the category: “Keep growing.”

The ads come at high points for all three brands. Vroom went public just eight months ago, and announced the acquisition of competitor CarStory at the end of last year. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s share price has doubled since the beginning of 2020, while Fiverr’s has multiplied tenfold.

Scotts, in particular, has benefited from more time spent at home over the past year, as home improvement brands such as Home Depot and Lowe’s have also seen sales soar. Comscore data shows that in May 2020, the home furnishings category experienced 133 million unique visitors—the highest ever. In particular, Scotts had a banner year, with a record fourth quarter that saw its U.S. consumer segment sales increase by 90%. For the fiscal year 2020, sales were up 24%.

“As difficult as 2020 was for so many Americans due to Covid-19, the opportunity to spend more time at home with family and loved ones also gave us more time to invest in our lawns and gardens,” said Josh Peoples, CMO at Scotts Miracle-Gro. “This greater appreciation for the positive impact these spaces can have on our physical and mental state brought more than 25 million new consumers into the category last year, helping propel our company to its best year ever.”

Online marketplaces Fiverr and Vroom also benefited from the shift to digital. Vroom’s ecommerce unit sales were up 59% in its third quarter, while its ecommerce gross profit rose by 120%. In Q3, Fiverr saw 88% year-over-year topline growth.

“While this year has been a year of record-setting growth for the business, we’ve been incredibly humbled to see how the platform has been able to help so many people during this pandemic,” said a spokesperson from Fiverr. “It’s clear that working with remote freelance talent is a long-term strategic investment for businesses of all sizes going forward, and we are proud to be at the forefront of leading that change.”

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