Humour at the Super Bowl

By turning a product ‘flaw’ into a competitive advantage, Cheetos doubled forecasted sales of its new popcorn product from $40m to $100m. With star power provided by MC Hammer’s memorable track and the mass reach of the Super Bowl, ‘Don’t Touch This’ demonstrated the unexpected perks of having sticky orange fingers. It shows the value of listening closely to what consumers are saying about your products, including the criticism.

Challenger gym chain Anytime Fitness showed how to keep up momentum throughout the game with a fun promo on social: when viewers heard the word “anytime” during the Super Bowl broadcast and tweeted #JustHeardAnytime, they could win a trip to any branch of Anytime Fitness. The challenge generated 37m impressions and a 998% increase in engagement, outperforming brands that had paid for an in-game presence.

Finance and HR company Workday showed how to use human insight to make a B2B brand more relatable. It used the Super Bowl to send a tongue-in-cheek message to the corporate world: stop calling each other rock stars. The film saw the likes of Ozzy Osborne and Joan Jett enter everyday office scenes to complain about the label being misappropriated. It gained over 4.35bn earned media impressions.

Fans love speculating about Super Bowl ads. So beer brand Molson Coors created the first ad that people could bet on. More than 250,000 Americans placed bets on what would appear in its ‘High Stakes Beer Ad’, making Molson Coors the most Googled brand during the Super Bowl. It demonstrates how to create opportunities for conversation during the build-up to the event.