UPDATED: State Farm’s Facebook post added below.

Last Sunday, us Americans gathered ‘round our televisions for a rare real-time television event: a really big football game. (Am I allowed to say Superbowl on a blog without royalties to CBS?) My advertising friends and I mostly tune in to watch the hopefully clever commercials, so we can chatter about who did well and who… well, wasted their money.

Going into the game, many of my digital marketing friends were asking “how many ads will have social media calls to action?” just like we did last year. And Oreo gave perhaps the most overt reason to follow them in a social space as they kicked off their Instagram #cookiethat or #creamthat campaign (recreating Instagram users’ photos from crushed up cookie or sculpted filling). It’s a neat campaign and dubbed by Twitterati as the most expensive Instagram commercial ever.

But something has changed in television – really, in any content consumption: I wasn’t watching much of the game because I was trying to keep up with Twitter. What would the world say about Beyonce’s half time show? Who actually *likes* those ridiculous GoDaddy ads? Which commercial was the best, funniest, etc.  I hated to miss the ads, so instead I missed most of the actual game (which in the first half wasn’t missing much…).

And then, as if to prove what social media was really about, life happened in real time: the Superdome went dark. Lights out. Cue the rush of clever tweets about Beyonce’s halftime show literally bringing down the house or posts that the Superdome just assumed the game was over (since the Ravens had a significant lead at that point) and even a pop-up faux Twitter account personifying the Superdome Lights and saying things like “My bad, guys.”

But the biggest change was that it wasn’t just the fans in the seats or on couches around the U.S. Most notable for me as a marketer was the quick and clever thinking of several brands that had been actively engaging in social media during the entire game. Some brand responses were home runs (or touchdowns, since this is football?) and some, not quite.

Brand Winners (who took advantage of the blackout in real time):

Power out? No problem.
Retweets: 15K+ | Favorites: 5K+

 

Oreo created a relevant, smile-worthy post, plus executed super-fast creative! This wasn’t just a text update, it used a designed image, including reverse version of the logo in the “dark.”

Buffalo Wild Wings really doesn’t want football season to end!
Retweets: 9K+ | Favorites: 2K+

 

Buffalo Wild Wings managed to boost/allude to their ongoing television campaign, which had shown referees asking BWW patrons for input and offering to extend the games. Talk about on-brand! This was a huge win and well executed, even if it was only text.

Power outages can happen at the most unexpected times…
Likes: 450+ | Comments: 90+ | Shares: 175

 

Late addition (thanks to some other great suggestions): State Farm’s Facebook page took the opportunity to remind home owners about preparing for a blackout. On brand, relevant and fast moving: win!

Not quite there:

Plenty of viewers gave kudos to Tide, too, for actively listening in social media and responding, but their “blackout” posts didn’t have quite the same impact. Though they – like Oreo and BWW – referenced what was happening in real time, it seemed a bit less relevant: blackout vs stains out. In the second of two tweets, they included the campaign/stain in their TV spot, but it hadn’t actually aired yet (at least not in Kansas City). They did manage to get unique creative up quickly like Oreo did, but if they had taken a maybe less product-focused angle they may have landed a more relevant connection. Stats for both tweets below combined: Retweets: < 2K | Favorites: < 500

 

Honorable “Mention”:

A few other live events make my list of noteworthy social media from the so-called Big Game. Sharpie got, oh let’s call it an “honorable mention” when one of the team’s coaches was shown in an extra close up, wearing his Sharpie around his neck. Sharpie didn’t let it go by unnoticed and they even incorporated a proprietary pic, by taking a quick shot of their own. That’s a win for rich content and because they didn’t have to spend time designing or getting permission.

Click on any of the tweets above to get to the original post on Twitter. I’m guessing the Retweet and Favorite counts will only go up as AdAge and other industry publications weigh in on what real brand social media engagement looks like.

So who won the Superbowl? According to Twitter and Facebook statuses: Beyonce. By a landslide.

 


 

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