Feb 4, 2013
In a Super Bowl which featured ads going for nearly $4 million dollars for 30 seconds, it may have been Oreo’s moves on social media that may be most remembered in the Super Bowl marketing wrap-up.
For better or worse, Super Bowl 47 will also be remembered for the blackout at the Mercedes Benz Superdome. The power outage, which led to a 34 minute delay in the game, left many advertisers concerned about their wasted marketing dollars as viewers flipped channels (the Puppy Bowl is always a popular choice) away from the Big Game. Oreo, on the other hand, went to its Twitter account and tweeted this,
via web
13,000+ Retweets later and Oreo not only managed to capitalize on an unforeseen event, they pulled the feat off using very few marketing dollars. A strong hierarchial advertising structure is what allowed Oreo to pull the tweet off so quickly,
The Oreo graphic was “designed, captioned and approved within minutes,” according to Sarah Hofstetter, president of the cookie brand’s digital agency of record, Dentsu-owned 360i. All the decisions were made in real time quickly because marketers and agency members were sitting together at a “mission control” center, or a social-media war room of sorts, at the agency’s headquarters in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. Among those who were there were two brand team members from Oreo, and nearly a dozen creatives, strategists, community managers and social-media listeners.
The agency acknowledged that it was able to make decisions so quickly because the Mondelez-owned cookie brand was a broadcaster advertiser in the Super Bowl, and so was closely monitoring chatter and interaction with consumers on all social media channels. (via Ad Age)
While Oreo also ran a Super Bowl ad — created by Portland-based Wieden & Kennedy — that added tens of thousands of people to its now +30,000 follower account, you could make the argument that the clever, quick response to the power outage was more memorable than their $4 million dollar commercial spot.
At the very least, it was no where near as costly.
2 comments
That is the best use of Social Media during a major event that I’ve ever seen.
It was quick and creative thinking.
In comparison to the companies pouring millions of dollars into the Super Bowl for advertising, Oreo takes the trophy for taking advantage of a unique situation and turning it into a cheap but clever marketing strategy. Even with months of research and planning, it is still not easy for a company to produce a successful ad campaign but with some ingenuity and quick thinking, Oreo was able to accomplish that task with a lot less cash compared to their advertisement ran during the Super Bowl. Hats off to Oreo who, took advantage of a unique marketing situation, quickly producing a successful advertisement, and doing it all without spending much money.