Perplexity x Ronaldo: The End of Tech Marketing

By the time the “Siuuu” lands, you realise something has shifted.

From simple answers to high-performance curiosity: Visualising Perplexity’s strategic brand pivot.

It is December 2025. The initial, breathless hype cycle of Generative AI has settled into a hum of daily utility. We have spent three years watching tech CEOs in fleeces explain parameters, tokens, and context windows. We have been sold AI as a magic trick, a cheating tool, or a terrifying replacement for the human soul.

And then comes a commercial set at a humble food truck, featuring two young boys debating football stats, and a confused owner trying to keep up.

Perplexity’s latest campaign, “Curiosity is How Greatness Begins”, is a strategic pivot point for the entire industry. Notably, the star of the show—Cristiano Ronaldo—is nowhere to be seen. He is the subject, not the actor. By positioning the football icon as an investor and the “standard” of excellence, rather than just a talking head, Perplexity signals that AI marketing has grown up. It has moved from selling “the tech” to selling the impact of knowledge.perplexity

For marketers, this campaign is a masterclass in brand positioning, cultural fluency, and the calculated risk of celebrity endorsement. Here is why this ad matters, why it happened now, and what it tells us about the next phase of the digital economy.

1. The Pivot: From “Utility” to “Philosophy”

For the last decade, tech marketing has been obsessed with the “feed.” Algorithms fed us content they thought we wanted. The dynamic was passive: Scroll, consume, repeat.

Perplexity is attempting something difficult here: they are rebranding “search”—a boring, utility-based behaviour—as an act of high-performance “curiosity”.facebook

Perplexity is rebranding ‘search’—a boring, utility-based behaviour—as an act of high-performance ‘curiosity’.

They are not selling a ‘conversational answer engine’ (a phrase that puts the average person to sleep). Rather, they are selling the idea that winners ask better questions.

This is the “Nike-ification” of software. In the 1980s, Nike realised that selling rubber and foam was a race to the bottom. So, they stopped selling shoes and started selling “Just Do It”. They sold the internal state of the athlete. As I noted in my analysis of Nike’s “Why Do It?” campaign, the most powerful brands don’t just sell products; they sell an invitation to a better version of yourself.marcom+1

Selling the Mindset, Not the Tool

By focusing on two young fans debating stats—goals, World Cups, the Henry comparison—Perplexity grounds the “search” in passion. The boys aren’t doing homework; they are building a worldview.

When the food truck owner uses the app to decode their shout of “Siuu!”, the product shifts from a fact-checker to a cultural bridge. It reframes the user from a student cheating on an essay to a person seeking connection. This aligns with the broader industry need to move beyond tool sprawl and the productivity delusion, where we stop collecting apps and start actually using them to solve human problems.

Why this matters for you

If you are still marketing your SaaS product based on its features (e.g., “We have 10x faster processing”), you are fighting a losing battle.

Features are commodities. Philosophy is a moat. You need to ask: Who does my customer want to be when they use my product?

2. The Trust Deficit and the “Invisible” Endorsement

We must address the elephant in the server room: Hallucinations.

Despite two years of rapid improvement, the general public still harbours a deep suspicion of AI. We have all heard stories of lawyers citing fake cases or chatbots inventing facts. Trust is the single biggest barrier to mass adoption for Perplexity, which positions itself as a “Truth Engine.” This skepticism is well-founded; as discussed in my critique of Microsoft’s Copilot authenticity gap, the industry has a habit of over-promising “magic” while under-delivering on basic reliability.

Enter Ronaldo—as an investor.

The Psychology of Trust Transfer: How Ronaldo’s reputation for precision acts as a psychological shield against AI hallucination anxiety.

This is a sharper play than a traditional cameo. By announcing Ronaldo as a financial backer, Perplexity leverages the “Skin in the Game” heuristic. It is one thing for a celebrity to hold a can of soda for a fee; it is another for a notoriously disciplined businessman to invest his own capital.storyboard18+1

The “Absent” Hero

The fact that Ronaldo doesn’t appear in the ad physically is actually a strength. It avoids the “uncanny valley” of bad acting often found in athlete commercials. Instead, his presence is felt through the data. The boys cite his stats (the “1000 goals” debate) as absolute truth.

The subliminal message is powerful: Ronaldo’s career is built on cold, hard facts. Perplexity is the custodian of those facts.

We saw a similar “credibility by association” tactic in Google’s partnership with Stephen Curry, where the athlete’s physical precision was used to ground abstract tech.

The Risk

However, this approach relies heavily on the audience knowing about the partnership news. Without the context that “Ronaldo invested,” the ad might just feel like a football-themed spot. Perplexity mitigates this with the “CR7 Fan Archive” hub, a digital destination that forces users to actually engage with the product to see the content.marketing-interactive

3. The Death of the “Prompt Engineer”

One of the most subtle but brilliant moments in the ad is the food truck owner’s confusion.

The Setup: The boys shout “Siuuu!” (Ronaldo’s signature celebration).
The Conflict: The older food truck owner mishears it as “See you?”
The Tech Moment: He asks the app. The app corrects him, explaining the cultural context of the celebration.
The Resolution: Connection is established.

On the surface, this is just a joke. But functionally, it is a demonstration of semantic understanding.

Early AI marketing (2023-2024) was obsessed with “Prompt Engineering.” We were told we had to learn a new syntax, a magical code to get the machine to work. It was intimidating. It felt like coding.

Making the Tech Accessible

This ad destroys that myth. The user is a food truck owner—a stand-in for the “everyday person.” He doesn’t type a complex query like: “Explain the etymology of the homophone Siuuu.” He just talks.

This signals the end of “Tech Specs” marketing. We are done with telling people how to use the tool. Instead, we are just showing them living with it.

4. Cultural Fluency: The “Siuuu” Test

If you are going to market to a global audience, you cannot just translate your copy; you have to translate your culture.

The ad’s script is surprisingly culturally literate. The boys rattling off stats like “The bicycle kick against Juve” is not just a script; it is a documentary of every school playground in the world. Kids speak in stats.

If this script had been written by a sterile agency committee, they would have said, “He is a very good player.” Instead, they went specific. Specificity breeds authenticity.

Specificity breeds authenticity. Authentic specificity is the only way to cut through the AI washing epidemic where every brand claims to be ‘intelligent’ but few actually demonstrate it.

The “Siuuu” joke is the cherry on top. It acknowledges a global meme and integrates it into the product UI. Furthermore, it proves that Perplexity isn’t just a Silicon Valley robot; it watches football. It “gets” us.

Actionable Insight

Review your current campaigns. Are they generic? Do they speak to “users,” or do they speak to “fans”? Authentic specificity is the only way to cut through the AI washing epidemic that is currently flooding the internet, where every brand claims to be “intelligent” but few actually demonstrate it.

5. The Strategic Battlefield: Why Now? (December 2025)

Context is everything. Why drop this ad in December 2025?

The Search Wars are Settling: By late 2025, the initial scramble between Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity has stabilised. Google has integrated AI into everything; ChatGPT is the default “creative” partner. Even competitors like Anthropic are refining their pitch (see my analysis of the Claude Sonnet launch). Perplexity needed to carve out a specific niche: “Knowledge for Doers.”
Engagement vs. Utility: The launch of the “CR7 Fan Archive” is a brilliant retention play. It moves the user from a transactional search (“What is the capital of France?”) to an exploratory session (“Show me his 2008 goals”). This increases “time on site”—a metric investors love.marketing-interactive
The Global South: Ronaldo is not just a European star; he is a god in Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Perplexity has been aggressive in markets like India (partnering with Airtel ). This ad is a direct play for the non-US/EU market, where mobile-first, voice-first search is the default.grabon

6. Critical Analysis: Where It Falls Short

It would be remiss to write a “fanboy” piece without critique. The ad is effective, but it is also safe.

Navigating the “Vampire Effect”: Visualising the high-stakes balance between massive visibility and low brand recall.

Creative Conservatism: Structurally, this is a classic “Slice of Life” commercial. Two kids + Confused Adult + Product Solution. It breaks no new creative ground. Compared to the psychedelic weirdness of early AI art, this is remarkably “broadcast TV.”
The “Man Brand” Trap: Football. Ronaldo. Stats. Arguing. It is heavily coded male. While this aligns with the demographics of early tech adopters, it risks alienating a broader demographic that AI needs to capture to reach true mass scale.
The Product Disconnect: While the brand story is strong, does a “Fan Archive” actually differentiate the search engine? Google could build a Ronaldo stats page in an afternoon. Perplexity is betting that the experience of finding the data is better on their platform, but the ad relies on the content (Ronaldo) rather than the unique utility of the engine.

Conclusion: The Era of “AI Lifestyle”

Perplexity has fired the starting gun on the next era of tech.

We are no longer in the “Installation Phase” of AI, where we marvel at the plumbing. We are in the “Deployment Phase,” where the technology disappears into the background of culture.

This campaign asks you to stop thinking about the software and start thinking about the result. It argues that curiosity is a competitive advantage. Also, it argues that knowing the answer—whether it’s about a bicycle kick or a business metric—is how you stay in the game.

For marketers, the lesson is clear: Stop explaining how it works. Start showing who it makes you.

The machine is here. The question is no longer “what can it do?” but “what can you do with it?”

Actionable Takeaways for Marketers

Audit Your “Vampires”: If you are using influencers, consider not putting them in the ad. Sometimes, making them the subject of the conversation creates more mystique and authority than having them hold the product.
The “Normie” Test: The food truck owner in this ad represents the mass market. Does your product marketing speak to him? Or does it require a PhD in Computer Science to understand the joke?
Specifics Sell: “He scored a lot of goals” is copy. “The 2011 Copa del Rey header” is culture. Go deep into the niche details of your audience’s passion. They will reward you for it.
Pivot from “Easy” to “Great”: For years, we marketed tech as “easy to use.” Perplexity is marketing it as “hard to master, but worth it.” Respect your audience’s ambition.

Sources:

YouTube: Perplexity x CR7 Ad Spotyoutube
Storyboard18: Cristiano Ronaldo enters AI arena with investment in Perplexitystoryboard18
Marketing Interactive: Perplexity and Cristiano Ronaldo launch interactive CR7 experiencemarketing-interactive
Perplexity Blog: Curiosity is how greatness beginsperplexity
Facebook: Cristiano Ronaldo Official Pagefacebook
Marcom: Changing The Game: A Nike Marketing Case Studymarcom
Famewall: Perplexity AI Usage & Revenue Statistics for 2025famewall
Awisee: Master Psychology of Celebrity Endorsements 2025awisee
Wharton: The Marketing Psychology Behind Celebrity Endorsementsknowledge.wharton.upenn

The GOAT and the Machine: Why Perplexity’s Ronaldo Bet Marks the End of ‘Magic Box’ Marketing