A Paraqeet analysis of #SBLV
On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the title of Super Bowl LV champions. Although some iconic Super Bowl advertisers traded in their spots for more meaningful causes, even in a food coma haze, certain brands rose to the occasion and capitalized on the spotlight.
The Super Bowl has always been a showcase for big moments, from on-the-field action — Scott Norwood’s miss, Don Beebe’s forced fumble, the Philly Special — to highlights away from the gridiron — Left Shark, the Budweiser frogs, a certain “wardrobe malfunction” — and thanks to Twitter, the audience can now react in real time.
Before we use our social network visualization tool, Paraqeet, to break down the game tape, let’s take a look at how Super Bowl history has influenced how brands prepare for the big game just like the players themselves.
A history lesson
Before “Brand Twitter” became adept at inserting itself into live events, @Steakums, looking at you, there was the night the lights went out. …
Enter the MVP of Super Bowl XLVII — Oreo (apologies to Joe Flacco). With the Ravens leading the 49ers 28-7 in the third quarter, a partial power outage suspended play for 34 minutes, affecting the momentum of the game but also the momentum of the Oreo brand. Its war room got to brainstorming and, boom, “You can still dunk in the dark” was born and the crowd erupted, or the Twittersphere, that is.
Consumers exalted the brand’s tack with thousands of retweets, and AdWeek called the marketing stunt “one of the most successful and brilliant acts of branding that occurred” during that year’s Super Bowl. With a tweet two years in the making, according to then-VP of Cookies at Kraft Lisa Mann, Oreo’s ability to react in real time showed the value of preparation to a brand’s success.
Let’s go to the tape
Twitter inherently rewards this kind of fast-acting creativity in response to moments that large groups of people are experiencing. So what’s a good example from Super Bowl LV?
We used our in-house social network visualization tool to analyze the dominant Twitter conversations and found ourselves a worthy MVP candidate (apologies to Tom Brady).
*Bruce enters the chat
Paraqeet search for #SBLV
Influencer view
An unsuspecting Twitter handle ranked among the top influencers in a Paraqeet search for one of the Super Bowl’s branded hashtags, #SBLV.
Ottawa Public Health planned a post thanking viewers for watching the big game safely at home, an otherwise innocuous piece of social content that’s best practice for social media managers everywhere. Except, in this case, “*Bruce” left off a few important details.
A Bruce responds
Upon seeing his name in the original tweet, verified Toronto Star columnist @bruce_arthur responds by suggesting that he was supposed to sign off on the copy before it went to publication. The journalist’s 146.56K following no doubt contributed to the virality of @OttawaHealth’s tweet, but the brand’s true foresight is revealed in its ability to react in real time to engage even more consumers.
The brand stays on message
@latursk replies to Ottawa Public Health with “Bruce is either in deep sh*t, or Ottawa Health about to follow this up with ‘now that we have you all here, wear a mask and stay away from people.’” Ottawa Public Health then derisively responds just that.
This is a quintessential example of a brand capitalizing on the fact that the Super Bowl is a global stage for messaging. The playful fast-acting response of Ottawa Public Health skyrocketed its reach to rank as the fifth most influential interaction in our Paraqeet search for top influencers.
Does *Bruce exist?
No.
By creating a meta joke playing into the extensive content curation that goes on behind the scenes of the Super Bowl, it has proved just how necessary preparation is when competing on the world’s biggest stage.
The P in MVP is for preparation
The fact that preparation leads to reactivity rings true and isn’t going anywhere. Brands that can hone this skill as Ottawa Public Health has will propel themselves even further into creating brand longevity and force competitors into a defensive position.
Congrats on your big win, Ottawa Public Health (apologies to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
For anyone who wants to check out other trends, you can sign up for free access to Paraqeet here.
