As the official numbers come in today, Nielsen ratings are suggesting this as the most watched Super Bowl game of all-time, topping last year’s game between the New York Giants knocking off the Patriots. It was a great game by MVP Joe Flacco and win by the Baltimore Ravens over the San Francisco 49ers.
Television commercials during the game were costing advertisers over $ 4 million for a thirty-second spot in front of over 110+ million viewers. While some wonder if their ad will propel their sales there is another type of marketing… that is virtually FREE!
Social media marketing. All it takes is time.
Is it worth it? It probably paid off for Oreo cookies last night during the Super Bowl. You may not have remembered if they had a television ad or not but those who were on social media, and more importantly, Twitter, saw the impact that the Oreo brand was making. When? #Blackout
Some big brands and businesses were online and ready. It’s honestly surprising that more companies didn’t have not only the creativity but their social media team being ‘paid,’ if they had to, during the most watched event in American history. Maybe next year more brands and businesses will get it. One never knows what can happen.
The 30+ minute #blackout did happen though during the Super Bowl and a few companies sent out tweets related to the incident. Audi said they were sending LED’s to the Superdome and Walgreens tweeted that they carry candles.
Moments after the blackout inside the stadium, Oreo cookies tweeted out a picture with the headline of “Power out? No problem.” The dark picture showed part of an Oreo cookie and on the image stated, “You can still dunk in the dark.” Was this mind blowing information? No, but it showed the instant creativity that captured people’s attention on Twitter.
By this morning, this particular tweet has been retweeted 14,820+ times and over 5,100 people that favorited this tweet. There is no telling how many people saw this simple tweet from the 14,000+ retweets.
I’m guessing the ROI is a tad better than a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl though. Marketing is not simply a 9 to 5 thing or distributing out a commercial for a radio or television advertisement. Social media is or can be a 24 hour a day thing. Those that are ready to seize an opportunity when it may arise will also be rewarded. Those in the stadium were probably wishing they had those Oreo’s at 8:45 last night.
For more social media marketing strategies, we invite you to come back and learn more on our Google+, Facebook or Twitter pages.
Swish Digital: Digital Marketing Agency, Social Media