Two Executive Producers broke down what made this year’s Super Bowl halftime show so remarkable and they kept coming back to one word: narrative.
“Most of the halftime shows you see are just spectacle,” says David Dranitzke, COO at TRADEMARK. With a background in film production — including work as a VFX Producer on major Hollywood blockbusters — Dranitzke understands large-scale production at the highest level. “They rely heavily on lighting, pyrotechnics, and glamor. This was pure narrative and they really pulled it off.”
A narrative-first approach is still relatively new to the Super Bowl stage. Many point to Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 halftime show as the first time audiences saw a performance where each creative decision was contributing to a larger story. The response was seismic, sparking widespread conversation about what the halftime show could mean to different audiences (Drake included).
Kendrick Lamar passed the baton, and Bad Bunny ran with it.
His performance wove together a collection of stories, celebrating a variety of Puerto Rican & Latin American culture, anchored by a single unifying message: love is more powerful than hate. And he delivered it with logistical genius.
“It’s really quite revolutionary in its creative concepting,” says Elle Chan, Co-Founder and CEO of TRADEMARK. “In live events, the temptation is always to blow it out — massive screens, airborne rigs, fireworks. But audiences are sophisticated. They’ve seen spectacle. What they haven’t seen enough of is an experience that invites them to feel something real.”
For Chan and Dranitzke, the lesson extends far beyond the Super Bowl stage.
Whether producing a sales conference, a product launch, or any live experience, intentional design matters — and it must serve every audience simultaneously, from those in the stadium to those watching from home.
“Impressively, this production was able to serve all of those audiences,” Chan notes.
According to both executives, the most extraordinary aspect of the show wasn’t any single jaw-dropping moment — though there were plenty. It was the discipline behind it. Every creative choice served a coherent vision. As Chan puts it, it was “a testament to really smart creative design.”
Intimate. American. Culturally rich.