Social media marketers are perplexed. Oreo’s marketing team scored a slam “dunk,” when their spur-of-the-moment tweet went viral during the February 3rd Super Bowl blackout. Just three weeks later, the brand hardly made a splash at the Oscar’s, leaving marketers wondering just how much investment in social media should be made during similar major events.
The now legendary Oreo tweet, “Power Out, No Problem.” scored over 16,000 “retweets,” during the Super Bowl and the weeks following. Unfortunately, at the Oscars, just like Jennifer Lawrence on her way to accept her award, the same team stumbled and failed to achieve similar success. The Oreo team’s best effort at the Academy Awards was “Some prefer it shaken. We like it dunked,” which managed only 243 retweets, a significant decrease from their previous social media effort.
While the success of Oreo’s Super Bowl promotion may have suggested brands investing in Social Media SWAT teams, the results of the Oscars left social media marketing strategists confounded as to what is the right plan for truly capitalizing on major events.
Let’s look at what happened with the Oreo team and what this may suggest as a strategy for social media marketing in the future.
Oreo at Super Bowl XLVII
Oreo spent months planning an integrated marketing campaign and advertising plans to support the brand during the Super Bowl. After strategizing and finalizing a plan, Mondelez, the parent company of Oreo, signed-off on a $4 million media buy during the Super Bowl to support its “Whisper Fight” ad. One of the brand’s objectives? To engage the youth market, an important demographic for Oreo.
The main agenda of Oreo was to support their current campaign, “What’s better, the creme or the cookie?” 360i, the brands interactive agency, was responsible for coordinating activities on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to support the ad. Twitter and Facebook set the stage, with some teasers for the ad prior to the Super Bowl. The company’s Instagram site offered a “sneak-peek” of what was to come and achieved more than 2,000 followers even before the ad was broadcast.
On February 3, 2013, Oreo assembled its own Super Bowl team of about 15, who huddled at the Tri-Beca offices of 360i. This included two people from the Oreo marketing team and representatives from each of Oreo’s agencies – Wieden + Kennedy, Mediavest, and Weber Shandwick. 360i had the largest contingent, with at least five creative people participating.
The “Whisper Fight” ad ran smoothly and ended with the final four seconds displaying the catchy social media hook line, “Something we can all disagree on: Choose your side on Instagram @Oreo.” Within seconds, the Oreo Instagram profile ballooned to more than 20,000 followers. Oreo was already off to a good start.
But, what happened next was almost as eventful…at 7:37 PM, the lights went out!
The Oreo team transformed into a Super Bowl Swat Team…here is the chronology of what happened in the subsequent minutes of the blackout, as Oreo and other brands scrambled to capitalize on the void that needed to be filled:
7:38 PM CT Oreo Team discusses the situation and starts brainstorming…
7:40 PM CT Audi Team does a friendly tweet poke at competitor Mercedes Benz (with SuperDome naming rights) “Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now…”
7:41 PM CT Oreo Team reviews design and caption options
7:42 PM CT Oreo Team agrees on tweet, caption and image, but waits to determine cause of power outage.
7:44 PM CT Walgreens tweets, “We do carry candles. #SuperBowl”
7:46 PM CT PBS tweets, “This might be a good time think about alternative programming. #SuperBowlBlackOut.”
7:47 PM CT Oreo Team determines “it’s a go!”
7:48 PM CT Oreo tweets: “Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC”
7:50 PM @oreo starts trending and other brands try to follow its lead
7:51 PM CT Tide tweets: “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower”
7:53 PM CT VW tweets: “Lost power during the Big Game… Don’t worry, #GetHappy”
8:00 PM CT Walgreens tweets, “…we also sell lights. #SuperBowl”
The Results:
| Brand |
retweets |
| Oreo |
16,075 |
| Audi |
9,694 |
| Walgreens (candles) |
3,380 |
| PBS |
3,527 |
| Walgreens (lights) |
2,422 |
| Tide |
1,370 |
While others brands made attempts to connect with viewers, Oreo blew all other brands out of the water.
In some respects, the scenario at the Super Bowl was a “Perfect Storm” for the Oreo Team. They had a ready audience that was staged to receive advertisements. The blackout provided an entertainment void, which opened the door for other forms of content. Many people, especially the younger demographic, shifted to mobile devices and were able to receive the Oreo tweet and react to it instantly. As Sarah Hostetter, president of 360i noted, “It is more about being relevant at the right time.”
While the Oreo Team was the toast of Madison Avenue in the weeks following the Super Bowl, the question was whether they could continue to demonstrate the need for a Social Media SWAT Team.
The answer came quickly, as the Oscars provided the perfect platform to test the theory. The results were anything but stellar and it seems the Super Bowl success may have been a lucky alignment of events. Nevertheless there are some important lessons to learn. Here are some:
While there may be a place for Social Media SWAT Teams, brands need to set realistic expectations. Oreo’s social media success at Super Bowl XLVII set a high bar for other brands to achieve, but more importantly it demonstrated what is possible.
DigitalMediaIX is a research firm that tracks college students, brands, and digital engagement. The company conducts the semi-annual National College Student Survey at more than 50 campuses around the country. Oreo is on the DMIX 100 and is the leading snack brand for college students.
Image courtesy of Instagram, Oreo
Photos Courtesy of UW-Madison Archives
