Quick Thinking…Oreo’s Brilliant Blackout Tweet Won the Super Bowl Ad War For Free
As Companies paid up to 10 Million for a 30 second Superbowl Ad, Oreo’s Blackout Tweet won the SpotLight for FREE!
Anyone watching the Super Bowl last night saw a great game, and also witnessed one of the greatest gaffes in pro sports history: a power outage that halted play for a full half-hour. As both teams, thousands in the Superdome, and millions of people watching on TV waited in darkness, Oreo capitalized on the situation and came up with a brilliant idea that showed a mastery of Social Media Marketing.
The Tweet which happend in real time had this tagline “Power out? No problem, You can still dunk in the dark.”
The tweet caught fire, and as of this writing had been retweeted 135,734 times.
So how did the cookie company act so fast, and get so many talking — all with minimal time available, and minimal expense?
Apparently, it was the very quick thinking of the company’s agency, 360i:
“We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity,” agency president Sarah Hofstetter told BuzzFeed. “Because the brand team was there, it was easy to get approvals and get it up in minutes.”
Oreo had already aired a solid TV ad with their “Cookie or Creme” spot. But they were ready to capitalize on social media as well when the lights went out.
“The big question is, what happens when everything changes, when you go off script?,” Hofstetter said. “That was where it got fun.”
The key? Having OREO executives in the room, and ready to pull the trigger.
This may mark a shift in corporate media strategy, lEts see what happens next year.
