Oreo's Real Time Response

When someone mentions the word Super Bowl, many think of the amazing teams, memorable half time performances or even the phrase, "I'm going to Disney World!" However, when I think of the Super Bowl, I don't think of any of those things. Instead, my brains connects the word to the advertising opportunities. According to CNN, more than 111 million viewers tuned in to watch Super Bowl LI. Companies are willing to pay big bucks for these prime spots. According to the New York Times, a 30 second Super Bowl ad is going for around $5 million this year. With such hefty prices many wonder if the viewership rate is worth the cost or if there are smarter means of advertising. 

In Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, Oreo performed an extremely clever advertising tactic. During the third quarter of the game, a power outage at the Superdome caused lights to go out for 34 minutes. Oreo's social media team jumped at the opportunity by tweeting, "Power Out? No problem" with an ad of a dimly lit, lone Oreo and the caption, "You can still dunk in the dark." The response caught fire and quickly gained more than 15,000 retweets and over 20,000 likes on Facebook. 

"Once the blackout happened, no one was distracted- there was nothing going on. The combination of speed and cultural relevance propelled it to the forefront," said Sarah Hofstetter, president of digital marketing agency 360i, which handled Oreo's game day tweeting. 

A survey conducted before the game showed results that 36% of viewers would be consulting a second screen during the Super Bowl. Therefore, having a brand respond in real time on social media was a clever employment of reaching a second audience. 

"While this kind of social media campaign isn't entirely new, it's not as popular as it should be," stated Jonah Berger, a marketing professor.

So how the big question is how did Oreo pull off such a brilliant advertising tactic? The company ran their original advertisement in the first quarter of the game. Meanwhile, sources say they were equipped with a 15 person social media team, along with copywriters, strategists and an artist, ready to respond to anything that happened online regarding the Super Bowl in 10 minutes or less.