Pantone influences product development and purchasing decisions in nearly every industry, including fashion, home furnishings and industrial design, as well as product, packaging, automotive and graphic design. But as the brand headed into a new decade, it needed to stay ahead of the copycats and appeal to a new generation of digital-first designers and creators. To reach this audience we set out to elevate color as a critical form of communication—and show up where creatives would least expect it. So when for the first time in its 54-year history the 2020 Super Bowl featured two teams with red as their primary color, Pantone 186C and Pantone 187C, we knew we had a massive opportunity to highlight the importance of color in creating and communicating memorable and meaningful experiences.

We saw an opportunity to champion the role of color on the biggest stage in American sports. This was both a chance to reinforce Pantone’s reputation as a driving force in popular culture, and to appeal to audiences that might not have known the brand. In under a week, we conceptualized and executed Pantone’s Big Game Color Commentary—the name being a cheeky play on the insights and analysis sportscasters share in between plays. Via Twitter and Instagram, the campaign would analyze the Super Bowl entirely through the lens of Pantone’s iconic color library and in Pantone’s brand voice, whether the action was on the field, during commercial breaks or in the locker room.

As the global color authority, Pantone influences product development in nearly every creative industry. The Super Bowl is among the most watched events in the U.S., and the creative industries targeted by Pantone pay particular attention to how brands integrate into the game. This is especially true for digital-first creators, an emerging audience target for Pantone, which largely consumes its news and information via social media platforms. When we learned that the 2020 Super Bowl was the first to feature two teams with the same primary color, red (Pantone 186C and Pantone 187C), we knew we had a rare opportunity to position Pantone as a driving force of pop culture and to highlight the importance of color at scale through social media by reimagining the concept of sports color commentary, which historically is used by U.S. sportscasters to refer to the deeper insights and analysis they provide between plays.

Positioned live in our content studio, over a period of four days from January 30th through February 2, 2020, we executed a real-time social campaign that memorably (and humorously) analyzed the Super Bowl entirely through Pantone’s iconic color library. We provided wide-ranging color-centric Super Bowl-related commentary, from team jerseys to concession-booth food to the action both on and off the field. Our commentary even extended to banter with fans, influencers and Super Bowl advertisers including Jeep, Audi, Cheetos, Little Caesars, Heinz, Tide, Square Space, Reeses, Olay and others. The work ran on Pantone’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as the Twitter accounts of the collaborating brands. And it was done with zero media dollars and a limited production budget.

#BigGameColorCommentary helped Pantone reach entirely new audiences in an unexpected but authentic way, generating more than 1.176 million Twitter impressions and nearly 145 million media impressions through stories in Fast Company, USA Today, Adweek and others. Pantone was also named to Twitter’s annual #BrandBowl for being the “brand whose campaign was best tied to the event.” According to Google Trends, online search interest in Pantone increased nearly 50% throughout the campaign window, and continued well into the following month. The business world also took notice, as the campaign generated a significant increase in new business inquiries and collaboration opportunities from brands around the world.