The cost-effectiveness of using traditional media to show branded entertainment is diminishing. Using social media to launch campaigns and content is now the norm—and standing out requires finding creative ways to do it.

Reactive marketing works best when it’s a moment you can truly own as a brand. For this activation, we had two things working for us. One, fans everywhere were already talking about the provocative fit of our ACTV tape jerseys. Two, the bite happened during a match involving two PUMA sponsored teams, so by default it was through a PUMA jersey. We owned this moment by combining both conversations seamlessly.

Soon after the moment happened on the pitch, we posted the tweet blaming the tasty-looking shirt for the bite. Then we launched the giveaway, also on Twitter, for the three limited-edition jerseys—fulfilling the prizes for the three winners after the tournament.

For the three days after the bite (6/24-6/27), our bite tweet was the top performing single piece of content amongst competitors with over 13,000 engagements. The jersey giveaway gained almost 10,000 leads, making it PUMA’s highest performing Twitter lead-gen card ever.

Following the giveaway, daily mentions on Twitter increased by 43%, daily engagement increased by 28% and PUMA’s following increased by 61%. By capitalizing on a major moment directly tied to our jerseys, we were able to make a big splash at World Cup 2014 with a budget of just $11,000.