MT Twitter Radar: How Oreo dunked the traditional ad men during the Superbowl
By Michael Northcott Monday, 04 February 2013
On the advertising industry's most expensive and competitive day, biscuit maker Oreo managed to get perhaps the most valuable piece of marketing out there - and they did it for free.
It's the most expensive ad slot on television - half time at the Superbowl. This year the top bidders apparently paid around $3.5m for the privilege of getting their wares on show on Sunday 3rd February, during the final between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens.
But one media-savvy firm managed to avoid the massive bill and still create the phenomenal buzz. That was Oreo, the biscuit maker.
At the start of the second half of the match, a power outage caused the lights to dim dramatically and meant that play had to be suspended for around 30 minutes. Cue absolute pandemonium in the bowels of the stadium as engineers scrambled to get the lights back on.
But Oreo, sensing an opportunity, rolled out this Tweet on the official company account less than 15 minutes after the incident. It got retweeted almost 15,000 times...
Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013
Very clever indeed, we think. Here are MT's handpicked Twitter reactions to Oreo's lightning-quick marketing ploy:
It's crazy what commercials can do. #Oreo commercial aired and I watched their Instagram followers go from 4k to 15k in less than a min. Wow
— Jessie R. (@Jessica_Read) February 4, 2013
Nothing gets even my ad-loathing friends to share #ads with their friends as much as Twitter ads. Amazing. #SuperBowl #Oreo #socialads
— Chad Woodford (@chd) February 4, 2013
@360i Oreo was the most memorable and entertaining ad of the night. Congrats! #oreo
— Stuart Berberich (@stuartberberich) February 4, 2013
In my opinion #Oreo won the #brandbowl last night, on a budget of $0 - smart cookies!
— Edward McClenaghan (@Edvertiser) February 4, 2013
Im declaring the #Oreo commercial is the winner! I dont even have to see the other commercials to know. #superbowl
— Mike Saccocio (@MikeSaccocio) February 4, 2013
#Oreo dunked the rest of the advertising industry for $3.5m. Why pay big bucks when you can tweet your way into consumers' minds? #Superbowl
— Michael Northcott (@MikeNorthcott) February 4, 2013
Less than a week to go until people actually pay attention to TV ads for a day - instead of avoiding them like the plague.#SuperBowlAds
— Mark E Ting, Esq. (@MarketingGems) January 28, 2013
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