On the evening of February 8, Jimmy Donaldson, who is better recognized by his online persona MrBeast, announced a unique contest tied to a nationwide commercial broadcast during the Super Bowl. The YouTube personality revealed that the first viewer to successfully decipher the concealed clues woven into his Salesforce advertisement stands to win a grand prize of $1 million.
The approximately 30-second segment features Donaldson himself and introduces a high-stakes treasure: $1 million secured within a vault. Access to the vault is masterfully locked behind a sequence of interconnected puzzles. Observant viewers are encouraged to pay close attention as brief hints appear momentarily on the screen, motivating a careful review and frame-by-frame analysis of the commercial to uncover the solution.
This promotional piece serves to spotlight Slackbot, an artificial intelligence assistant integrated into Slack, which is owned by Salesforce. Slackbot’s functionality includes retrieving information swiftly, offering succinct summaries of discussions, and automating recurring tasks within the collaborative platform. This campaign marks a departure from Salesforce’s prior Super Bowl marketing approaches that typically featured prominent Hollywood actors such as Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson - both associated with campaigns centered around Agentforce.
Choosing MrBeast, a digital-first creator with an extraordinary following, reflects Salesforce’s commitment to leveraging influential new media figures to amplify their brand. Donaldson, 27 years old, holds the distinction of being the most-subscribed content creator on YouTube, with an impressive subscriber base of approximately 466 million on his main channel.
In the lead-up to the big game, MrBeast uploaded an enticing preview of the puzzle advertisement to his own YouTube channel, attracting more than 4.5 million views by the time of this report. His social engagement extends to the platform X, where he first publicized the $1 million puzzle challenge, encouraging fans worldwide to participate.
From a market perspective, Salesforce's shares have experienced modest activity in after-hours trading, with a slight uptick of 0.10%. While the company's stock scores favorably on quality metrics within Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings, it shows downward trends in price over short, medium, and long-term timeframes. This nuanced stock performance underscores the broader challenge tech giants face in maintaining sustained price momentum despite strong fundamentals.
Salesforce’s innovative approach to combining large-scale sporting event advertising with interactive digital engagement highlights an evolving marketing strategy that blends technology, entertainment, and influencer culture. By engaging audiences both emotionally and intellectually with a substantial monetary incentive, the campaign hopes to deepen user interest in Slack's evolving AI capabilities through Slackbot.
Overall, MrBeast’s collaboration with Salesforce reflects not only the merging of digital content creation and corporate marketing but also illustrates the increasing role of AI subsystems in enhancing productivity tools within enterprise environments. Observers will be watching closely to see how this competition-driven campaign impacts user engagement and brand perception post-Super Bowl.