The Super Bowl is always a big night for the advertising industry, but Super Bowl XLVII was one of the biggest.
Beyoncé had just performed her first halftime show. The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens had taken the field. And then suddenly, everything went dark at the Superdome. More than 100 million viewers turned to social media, and many brands saw an opportunity to light up that space.
At the time, Buffalo Wild Wings was already known for their spots that either featured employees sending games into overtime or letting a team take the lead with the press of a button. So when the blackout happened, fans immediately took to Twitter, joking that Buffalo Wild Wings just had to be behind it. Noticing the conversation that was happening about them, the brand reacted in real time with a tweet that was real good.
Sorry fans, we don’t have a button for this.
— Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) February 3, 2014
Tide got in on the fun, too—tying the event back into their brand with a tweet and custom visual.
We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower pic.twitter.com/JpQBRvjf
— Tide (@tide) February 4, 2013
And of course, who could forget the most iconic tweet sent that night: “Dunk in the Dark.” Oreo acted fast, and they got thousands of people talking. They earned more than 10,000 retweets in the first hour and made headlines in more than 100 countries—all with a $0 media budget.
Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013
According to the official Twitter blog, there were more than 24 million tweets sent on the night of the SuperBowl—but the peak was, of course, the blackout. While the lights were off in New Orleans, Twitter users were sending 231,500 tweets per minute. And while we can’t be sure how many of them were from our favorite brands, we can be sure that this night paved the way for real time marketing.
So, how can you make real time marketing work for your brand? Be proactive. If there’s a big event, like the Super Bowl, coming up, have someone from your team available—just in case there’s an opportunity to get your brand into the conversation.
For more inspiring examples of real time marketing, visit our original post in this series: 4 inspiring examples of real time marketing.
