Twitter Wins & Misses From Brands During the Super Bowl

By Jessica Smith On February 2, 2015 In Twitter with 7 Comments

The Super Bowl has become a sensory overload moment for me. Not only do I try to enjoy the game, but I also watch the commercials and second screen furiously. I know I’m not alone in this. The Big Game is not just about TV anymore; it’s also about the digital/social experience. This is for fans and advertisers alike.

This Super Bowl I kept a close eye out on all the social initiatives from brands, both those who had Super Bowl ads and those who hijacked the conversation. There were some good Twitter moments and some not-so-great moments. Here’s a look at my Twitter wins and misses from this year’s Super Bowl:

FOUR TWITTER WINS:

The wins included personalized content, ad integration, smart real-time marketing and strategic stunts.

No. 1- Personalized Content

Social media provides a unique platform for marketers: The opportunity to engage with consumers in a personal and more human way. Brands should take the time to engage with their consumer and create a unique and memorable experience. Personalized content is a great way to do this. And, this Super Bowl we saw several brands that took a more personal approach to content. It’s s a great way to thank your consumer and stand out from all the noise:

Budweiser
Budweiser was strategic with their personalized content, leveraging it to connect with influencers who tweeted about their commercial. Consumers still loved to see these responses from the brand, and it’s a great example of good social listening:

Seahawks
The Seahawks always make their fans a priority and find a way to have fun with their engagement. Here’s a look at how they interacted with fans at this year’s Super Bowl (and note how fans retweet these replies):

No. 2- Ad Integration

Too often we see advertisers putting money behind traditional ad campaigns without integrating it into social media. This year though, the brands that had spots during the Super Bowl put a little more thought behind it. This is crucial: Consumers see a commercial they like during the game today and they immediately go online to watch it again or engage with the brand. Take the time to integrate all your communication touch points; nothing should work in a silo. Bridging the gape between your traditional advertising and social is an opportunity to make a connection with your consumer.

Here’s a look at a some of the brands that integrated their ad concept into their social initiatives:

Budweiser
Ad integration was another win for Budweiser this Super Bowl. They created content inline with the story of their #BestBuds and Clydesdales, teasing it before and during the game.  When launching an ad campaign, I think it’s critical to figure out how you can also tell the story online. This is a good example:

Coca-Cola
Coke used their platform for social good, promoting a happier and nicer Internet. They ran a powerful and beautiful spot, then followed it up with great social integration that prompted action (which makes sense for a social good campaign). It would have looked tone deaf and not genuine if Coca-Cola had run that ad and walked away. They didn’t do that though: They took action to turn negativity into happiness. Here’s a look at what they did (I just wish it hadn’t been so automated):

Toyota
Playing off their Dad-theme spot, Toyota asked fans to honor their dads by tweeting pics with #OneBoldChoice. In return, consumers were surpised with a personalized video. This is not only great ad integration, but also a great example of personalized content:

Loctitite Glue
Because if you’re going to have a weird and wacky fanny pack commercial, you have to top it off with a GIF:

https://twitter.com/LoctiteGlue/status/562074033005817856

No. 3- Smart Real-Time Marketing

I’m a hard one to please when it comes to real-time marketing and planned social media content around holidays, stop-baldness.net events, etc. When executed the right way it can be a huge hit, but all too often it’s forced, stretched, gimmicky and phony (you get the point).

Here’s the thing with real-time marketing: The winning moments aren’t planned. Instead, winning moments happen when brands seize an on-brand opportunity that puts them into conversation genuinely. Here’s a look at a few brands that got real-time marketing right during the Super Bowl:

MGM Grand
In response to the lion Katy Perry rode on during the halftime show.

USATF and Jet Blue
In response to Always’ “Like a Girl” Campaign.

Cheerios
In response to the last play from the Seahawks.

On-Brand Stunt (Monster)

When I first saw the tweet below from Monster, I thought they had made a mistake. This tweet is a perfectly planned stunt that is right on brand . It pokes fun of the social media industry a bit, while plugging their product. Take a closer look at the bottom text:

This is a great example of how you can plan to jump in the conversation strategically. You don’t have to tweet a million misses; it takes just one strong tweet to skyrocket impressions. You have to be smart about it though.

FOUR TWITTER MISSES:

The misses included gimmicks, brand-on-brand interaction, disconnected content and real-time marketing noise.

No. 1- Gimmicks (McDonald’s)

McDonald’s recently rolled out strong creative, from their signs spot to their “Pay With Lovin’” campaign. I love their focus on community/customer and not the product. I was looking forward to seeing how they would carry over their emotional content on their social channels during the game. Unfortunately, they went the opposite way and resorted to a gimmick. McDonald’s did a “RT to win x” campaign for every brand that had a Super Bowl spot:

Everyone loves free stuff, so it’s no surprise that all of their tweets got good engagement. It’s easy to get thousands of retweets when you are giving away a free car; it’s another thing to get strong engagement that is relevant to your brand and campaign.

No. 2- Brand-on-Brand Interaction

Our industry is way too guilty of finding a tactic that works and overplaying it. Brand interaction is a great example of this. Apparently during the Super Bowl now, being an advertiser makes you a member of an elite club where all the brands have to converse with one another. Here’s a look at some of the examples from last night (and yes, Doritos took the charge on this one):

One of my golden rules in social media is to ask, “why would the consumer care”? And quite frankly, the consumer probably doesn’t care that all the brands with Super Bowl ads are having a conversation. They care about content that is funny, strikes a good, resonates, etc. Just like RTM, brand-on-brand interaction is a gimmick. Use it sparingly and strategically while remaining on brand. You will make a bigger splash then.

No. 3- Content That’s Completely Disconnected

Pepsi came out of left field with a kitten halftime show AFTER Katy Perry’s show. It would have been better for them to tweet this during halftime as fans were reacting to it. Instead, I have no idea where the kittens came from and why they decided to bring them out when they did. With the timing, it just seemed like a huge disconnect:

No. 4- Adding Noise

As mentioned earlier, I’m hard on real-time marketing because more often than not brands just add noise and not value.  Thanks to social media, every brand feels pressure to execute around big events and holidays whether it’s relevant to their product, values, etc. We try to make toilet paper, fast food, candy, soda and everything else on this planet pertinent to… well, everything. Brands are waving their hands in the Twittersphere begging to be relevant. This year’s Super Bowl was no different. Yes, FOMO is real in advertising:

Smart brands understand that real-time marketing is a potential opportunity, not a necessity. They’ll seize the moment when they see one (and remain on brand), and stay silent when needed. Let’s stop the madness of jumping into every conversation. Let’s get back to being strategic.

 

So there you have it: My social media wins and misses from the 2015 Super Bowl. Integrating social media into your ad campaign well is no easy feat, but it’s certainly worth the work if you want to make a bigger splash. It just takes a thoughtful and strategic approach.

So, what stood out to you on Twitter from brands during the Super Bowl? Share your thoughts below!

As always, thanks for reading. 

Like what you read? Please share!
RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn
0

7 comments.

  1. It’s a shame that Budweiser’s good work on their first ad will largely be lost in the buzz surrounding their perplexing anti-craft ad. They’ll lose so much of the secondary burn they would have gotten as people dissect their ad strategy instead of focusing on the great puppy ad.

  2. LOVE these! Fantastic article Jessica!

    Another miss was from Nationwide. Lots of non-creative, non-unique tweets replying to people tweeting about their second ad.

    • Ah, that’s a great a miss. Generic replies that look like automated tweets are almost as bad as not engaging at all! Thanks for reading, Geoffrey!

Comments are closed.