Perplexity’s Innovative Strategy Boosts App Downloads by 50% During Super Bowl

Perplexity leveraged a unique Super Bowl contest to significantly increase its app downloads, showcasing the effectiveness of creative marketing strategies over traditional ads.

During the Super Bowl, Perplexity, that clever little AI search engine, decided to skip the usual flashy (and wallet-draining) ads. Instead, it threw a curveball: a social media contest where downloading their app could land you a cool $1 million. Guess what? It worked like a charm—app installs shot up by 50%, according to Appfigures. Not too shabby for a Sunday night gamble.

Here’s the kicker: to enter, you had to download the app and ask it at least five questions while the game was on. (Because nothing says ‘football’ like quizzing an AI, right?) This genius move didn’t just bump up downloads; it got people actually using the thing, poking around its features when they’d otherwise be arguing about halftime shows.

Appfigures spilled the beans—Sunday saw 45,000 downloads, up from the usual 30,000. That rocket boost sent Perplexity soaring to No. 6 in the U.S. App Store’s Productivity chart (before chilling at No. 16). Overall, it leaped from No. 257 to No. 66, with a brief pit stop at No. 49. Talk about making an entrance.

This whole shebang proves you don’t need a Super Bowl ad budget to make waves. A bit of creativity, a dash of social media, and bam—you’ve got people downloading your app faster than you can say ‘touchdown.’