Svedka brings Fembot back to the Super Bowl with a $500,000 contest

By Tom Whitfield

Sazerac will return to the Super Bowl in 2027 with a $500,000 contest that offers one entrant a chance to place a Svedka Vodka Water ad in the game, CMO Sara Saunders said. A second Sazerac spot will promote a portfolio brand the company has not yet named.

What happened at the 2026 Super Bowl?

Svedka, the Sazerac-owned vodka brand, made its Super Bowl debut in 2026 with an ad starring Fembot, a robot mascot that had spent about a decade in retirement. The commercial used AI for production and animation and drew sharply divided reactions.

USA Today’s 2026 Ad Meter ranked the spot No. 53 among 54 ads. The largest share of voters, 39%, awarded the commercial one of five stars.

“It actually sold a lot of vodka for us,” Sazerac CMO Sara Saunders said. Nielsen data shared by Svedka showed sales up about 23% during the first half of the year and about 22% higher than in March.

Svedka framed its Super Bowl return with the motto: “If at first you don’t succeed, AI, AI again.” Under the 2027 plan, entrants can still use AI, but they will not have to.

The 2027 reset keeps AI in the conversation while shifting control toward creators.

How will the $500,000 contest work?

“We read every single comment on every single platform,” she told Marketing Brew. “I got a lot of personal emails, because my email was out there. It was clear that a lot of people thought that they could do better than us. So this year, we’re actually saying, ‘All right, show us what you got.’”

Saunders set the following terms for the contest:

• Eligibility: Any entrant of legal drinking age can submit an ad featuring Svedka’s canned Vodka Water.
• Prize: The winner receives $500,000 and the chance to have the ad appear in the Super Bowl.
• Production: Svedka accepts all forms of creative production, including claymation and live action. AI is optional, although Saunders expects some entrants to use it.
• Fembot: The mascot remains optional. Svedka would prefer entrants to include her, but an update dated Nov. 1, 2026, says applicants do not have to do so.

To announce the contest, Svedka tapped Bravo’s Andy Cohen, whom Saunders called the “unofficial arbiter of entertainment and drama.”

The contest tests whether creator-led work can improve on the polarized reception of the 2026 ad.

Why Fembot and Vodka Water?

Last year’s campaign aimed at the younger side of legal drinking age, and Sazerac now plans to focus more heavily on that cohort, Saunders said. Canned Vodka Water fits that strategy.

Svedka introduced Vodka Water this summer, and the product has generated buzz among younger, health-conscious consumers, Saunders said. Morning Consult separately reports that canned-cocktail drinks are particularly popular among Gen Z.

Fembot remains central to Svedka’s identity even though the contest does not require her. “Fembot is our embodiment of this Svedka brand,” Saunders said. “It’s a core piece of the brand’s DNA…”

“She’s been in our advertising for the last nine months, since the last Super Bowl, [and] works really hard for us in out-of-home, as an example, because people see her and they think about Svedka. She will be a core part of this brand for years to come,” she said.

The strategy pairs a product aimed at younger legal-age drinkers with a mascot the company expects to anchor advertising for years.

What will Svedka measure in 2027?

Brand conversation will be the main key performance indicator for 2027, the same measure Sazerac used after the 2026 Super Bowl, Saunders said.

That objective suits a brand willing to accept polarization. Saunders described vodka as “odorless, tasteless, and colorless,” a category in which she said consumer dialogue can be difficult to generate.

“Love it or hate it, we want to have that dialogue around the brand,” she said. “We believe that that dialogue helps the brand become top of mind for consumers, and that’s really important in this category.”

Brand conversation remains the stated 2027 benchmark, while future Nielsen sales data will show whether the contest and Fembot can convert attention into durable growth.